I went home this past weekend and I felt like Dr Phil for about the whole time with my brothers and sister.  Not about feelings and family issues, but about career management and decision making.  Not the position any of else wishes for however turned out to be a good way for us to bond.  With a large family, six siblings spread across 17 yrs there tend to be some lost communication and relationships differ.  That being said, this weekend in career counseling might be more difficult than your personal situation.  With three of them having very distinct career issues (one looking to change employers due to starting a family, one feeling under-employed, and the other just out of college looking for work).  I found that there are some very strong similarities in all of their situations whether 10 yrs of experience or my sister really just getting started.

Don't settle.  What does that mean?  Do not allow yourself to settle for less than you are or more importantly what you want to do.  Do what you want, you live longer - just wrote about this earlier.  I find that the two truly making career changes is that they had settled, had allowed for themselves to be stuck in roles that were not them.  They had taken roles out to school, not sure what they were doing but instead of looking at those first roles as "first jobs", they had stuck with them for the long haul and not found themselves unhappy with their role, their life, their career.  "How do I know where to go?" was the question and here are some easy steps to figure the first part out:

1. What are you good at?
2. What do you enjoy?
3. What career fields exist in the areas you listed in the answers to #1 and #2?
4. What skills do you have that apply to the career fields you listed in #3?
5. What education or other skills do you need to fill the gaps that you have (we never have all the skills)?

So now that you have an idea of the career and what you want to do that makes you happy, where do you go from here?  Unfortunately this is where most people stop their search and never really find themselves.  They do some internal searching but when it comes to external execution, they stop the process out of one thing - fear!  FEAR is a deadly destroyer of lives and careers.  When I read some of the most interesting posts and comments from people, I see fear being one of the largest factors in decision making reference careers.  I was scared to move, I was scared to change jobs (known vs. unknown), I was scared of leaving my friends, etc.  All of these things should have nothing to do with the RIGHT career move, however feelings dictate more about a person's career life than anything.  This is good and bad.  Feeling will and could get you started on the right path, however those same feelings will have you running for home when things get tough.  You need to know when they are good to listen to and when you need to push them aside.

Lastly, believe!  Always Believe!  Faith is an interesting promise and sometimes hard.  As a Christian, faith sometimes is harder than I would like it.  However, without it, I would never be able to take a step.  I find the harder things are, the more faith I have, and it makes me stronger for the next challenge. You can never believe that the obstacles in front of you are unbeatable.  If that is your view, never start down the path, as we all hit the wall and wonder how we will make it through.  Faith brings you all the way.

Read more content like this at workfanatic