Welcome to this bonus episode of the podcast, which I’m calling Ask the Coach.

Like I've said, we’re experimenting with this new segment, which I’ll plan to do the last Wednesday of the next few months. If you like it, we’ll keep doing it.

You guys submit your questions to me and I’ll answer them. They can be about anything related to your career from job searching and purpose to getting promoted, getting laid off or changing career paths. Even starting a side hustle or business. Whatever you want to know more about or get a different perspective on, fire away. I’m here for ya.

SO, TODAY’s question is definitely the one I get asked most frequently so, I wasn’t surprised when several came in that were sort of similar. They all centered around the theme “I don’t know what to do with my career.”

Now there were several versions of this questions. 

“I don’t know what I’m good at.” 

“I don’t know what I SHOULD be doing.” 

“I don’t know my purpose.” 

They’re all dancing around the same question of how to know what to do with the time you spend working.

So, let’s dive into the answer. Because there are three parts of this that I want to address. 

The first part is the “I don’t know” part of the question. 

Because this is something most of us do at one point or another and most of us aren’t connected to the issues it causes. 

Now I know when we’re trying to figure out something important and we think “I don’t know”, it certainly feels true. I’ve been there many times myself, believe me. Not just as it relates to career but also to relationships and other things.

But the issue is “I don’t knowing” yourself is a very good way to get stuck. That’s because when you tell yourself “I don’t know” you’re turning off or ignoring the part of you that DOES know. The intuition part. 

After all, YOU are the one who knows YOU best. So, the answer to what you’re great at or what you want to do with your work life HAS to come from you. That’s the only way to be sure that you’re doing something that’s aligned with your unique gifts, wants, desires. I mean, none of us want to spend 30-40 years doing what someone ELSE wants us to do with our life, right? What we do with our life gets to be about us. Never forget that. 

The other thing about this is, I believe we all KNOW what we’re good at and what we’re interested in. Sometimes we just don’t allow ourselves to KNOW it. 

Now that doesn’t mean you’re doing it on purpose. You’re not. ”I don’t knowing” yourself is usually an automatic thought our brain will serve up as a way to protect you from the implications of what would happen or what scary things you’d need to do, learn, master or try if you DID KNOW.

Think about it for a minute. If you “don’t know” you don’t have to do anything hard or scary or where you might fail.

But if you DID know, you’d have to put yourself out there and try or live with the fact that you were too scared to do it.

I don’t know is a protection mechanism. Self preservation. 

To hear more, give the episode a listen!

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