This is the most difficult and troublesome aspect of the WorkLife Method, not because of complexity or data or substance or resources but because of MINDSET. 

Our natural proclivity as humans is to “keep our options open”. Somehow it seems that it is better to overplant seeds to ensure robust growth, to acquire more than we need so that we have excess to fall back on, and ultimately to put as many fishing lines as we can in the water to ensure that we catch enough fish. 

Unfortunately, the opposite is true – too many fishing lines create a tangle, too many seeds planted chokes out everything and a lack of focus perpetuates a blur of activity.

In our career development coaching, it shows up as the idea that most jobseekers believe that it is better to flood the marketplace with resumes to “see what turns up”.

What happens is that the targeting is poor, the resumes never connect, and we waste a lot of trees and overburden company email servers, and, in most cases, annoy and displease the HR hiring folks! 

It is a much more productive use of your precious time and energy to Assess what you want as a job/career, EXPLORE creatively what options appeal to you and then target those opportunities through networking and research. 

However, “therein lies the rub” as WE have to choose and decide what, where, when, who and why we pursue a particular opportunity. In other words, if you try to hit everything, you’ll probably hit nothing and, in the off chance that you do, there is a high probability that it won’t be what you want.

So, what prevents us from CHOOSING? - Deciding what to keep and what to leave behind!

The fundamental meaning of the word decision is to cut away from. As we decide what to keep, we are also deciding what not to. The process moves constantly toward a clearer, more specific goal. 

It seems reasonable then that the more specific we can be, starting all the way back at ASSESSING, the quicker and more successful we will be at CHOOSING.

This, then, leads us to the importance of having accurate and meaningful criteria. Some typical, useful criteria may be financial, geographical, expertise required, time and/or availability of resources. 

Each time you utilize the WorkLife Method, you learn, refine and gain in the power and accuracy of your criteria, the applicability of your options and the viability of your choices.

Next, we will outline deeper and more effective ways of creating and maintaining COMMITMENT.