1. Take stock.

Did you ever layout a guiding career strategy to help you make decisions and manage your career from decade to decade?

For most of us, the answer is likely no. Given the changing work environment and the demands women need to balance across life stages, it’s a good idea to have a sense of where you’ve been and where you are headed, while knowing and accepting it might change along the way. Standing where you are today, you can look back at your 20’s and 30’s to understand where you’ve been and what you’ve gained and then chart a course for your 40’s and 50’s. It doesn’t require that every detail be planned, but it’s helpful to create enough of a framework to provide a roadmap.

Where to start?

Step back with a career check-up, while also looking forward by creating a horizon map that helps you plan with your long-term goals in mind. In doing so, you’ll be able to first gauge how you feel about the state of your career, second understand where you’ve been and where you are currently, and finally get clarity on your end goals to help you chart a path forward.

Try these two tools: 1) do a Career Hygiene Audit, and 2) create a Decade by Decade Horizon Map.

 
 

Do A Career Hygiene Audit

The Career Hygiene Audit is a check-up that allows you to gauge how you currently feel about your career and how you might need to navigate from where you stand today.

You can use the two 2x2 models we provide to determine if you are in alignment with your Motivations (Your What & Why) and then consider your Ambition (The How Far).

Your Motivations are a combination of what we call The What and The Why. Motivations consider how you like to apply yourself, what type of activities engage you, and why you’d be willing to commit time and effort to your work:

  • The What is the type of work activities and skillsets that will be enjoyable and engage you, ones where you will be eager to put in the effort to master them.

  • The Why is what drives you. It’s about finding purpose and meaning in your work.

Your ambition is The How Far. “What is my ambition?” is a fundamental question many people fail to ask. Honestly considering how far we want to reach, when and how we want to get there, and if we can accept the sacrifices that may be required to reach that ambition can bring further clarity to your motivations and can ignite your energy to put effort into your chosen profession. A note that Ambition can fluctuate over time; sometimes you want to dig in and other times you want to step back. That’s natural. It’s something to consider in the second exercise noted below. 

If you want to go deeper in understanding what we mean by The What, The Why, and The How Far, read more here.

Test Your Motivations – The What and Why

Through the first exercise, you’ll get a sense of if you are feeling drained or energized by your current career and if your work has or lacks meaning. Depending on those dimensions, you’ll consider different paths as possible next steps. Again, you can get the worksheet for this exercise here.

Using the 2x2 grid* provided, plot where you think you land when considering the state of your What and Why.

First, rate yourself along the X axis, considering your Energy-level as a way to test if you are in alignment with your intrinsic work motivators, The What (again the type of work activities and skillsets that you find enjoyable and engage you, ones where you are eager to put in the effort to master them). Do you tend to be more energized by your current work, or are you more drained? If you are lean towards Energized, you tend to be restless in a positive way, look for new challenges, are eager to get up in the morning, and are able to get work tasks completed easily. If you lean more towards being Drained, you tend to be restless in a negative way and find it hard to get up in the morning and difficult to complete work tasks.

Second, rate yourself along the Y axis, considering if your work has Meaning, The Why. If you feel like your work has Meaning, you believe in what you do, and your work is associated with your Purpose. If you feel like your work lacks Meaning, you don’t have a strong belief in what you do, and your work is not aligned with your Purpose.

Based on those two ratings, if you fall into Quadrants 1 and 2, then you are energized and using skillsets that you enjoy and utilize during times you experience flow. You are likely working in area that align with activities you enjoy, your interests, and your curiosities. There is a satisfaction level with your current path. If you are in Quadrants 3 and 4, then you are less enthused about the work you are doing day-to-day. This could be for many reasons, so you’ll want to dig into Your What and Why more deeply to diagnose your next steps.

Quadrant 1

If you are in Quadrant 1, we call this “Engaged.” There’s an opportunity for you to deepen your commitment, as you may have found your calling. If you’re in this state, you may ask yourself:

  • What’s my next challenge?

  • What’s my next ambition?

  • What’s the next thing I need to learn or gap in knowledge I need to fill to get to the next level?

Quadrant 2

If you are in Quadrant 2, we call this “Primed.” There’s an opportunity to find the meaning in your work. Don’t think this absolutely requires a major shift in your career. It may be that you are in the right career area, utilizing skills you enjoy, but you just need to dig a bit deeper for the meaning in what you do today to articulate your purpose that can fuel and inspire emotion in your work. Without changing anything, reframe your commitment to what you do to move yourself into Quadrant 1. There’s also a possibility that you do want to make more of a transition or pivot where you can reapply your skills to an area that aligns more closely with your purpose. That’s a valid option, as well. Finally, one may also want to accept that we might not all have a “calling.” Our calling might not be what earns us money. We might have to be willing to do what it takes to “bring home the bacon,” if you will, and find activities on the side that feed our soul and address our calling. One can likely add this to our lives through an outside of work function such as volunteering, being on a board, or engaging with family or others in need.

Quadrant 3

If you are in Quadrant 3, we call this “Drained,” and you may need to get recharged. You’re in luck in that your work has meaning, but it seems you might not currently be motivated. You could be burnt out and exhausted after having pushed really hard for a period of time and need a break to find renewed energy. Or, are you bored with what you are doing? Do you need a new challenge or want to expand your knowledge base and learn something new in your field? Perhaps your ambitions have changed. Are you seeking more personal time? Perhaps it’s time to re-write your priorities and allow yourself to re-balance where you are spending your time? (Use our next model to learn more, as well.) There are many reasons you might find yourself in this quadrant. The good news is that you are aligned with your Purpose and your work has meaning. That’s a big plus.

Quadrant 4

Finally, if you are in Quadrant 4, we call this “Disoriented,” and think it might be time to explore new options and possibilities. Perhaps it’s time to step back and consider what you are motivated by now and why. Consider what might be the drivers of the change that led you to consider yourself to be in this quadrant. Either your energy has waned or your work started to or has always lacked meaning. Consider a broader exploration of your What and Why. What activities now engage you, you find enjoyable, and you want to master? What are you motivated to do right now? How do you want to contribute? What can’t you not do? What do you love to do? Find more probing questions here.

A Final Note

Note that you may not fall squarely into one of the boxes in the grid. You might be partly in one and another. That’s okay, of course. This is just a guide to give you a sense of how you are feeling about your career in this moment and provides probes to ask yourself to help you gauge next steps. In addition, if you come back to this exercise over time, don’t be surprised if you move. That would be the hope! You have taken action based on your last assessment and find yourself in a new place with new actions to consider to move you forward.

 *Framework inspired by: “Assessment: Is It Time to Rethink Your Career?” by Herminia Ibarra in June 2015 and other research. Find her assessment here.

Test Your Ambition – The How Far

Through this second exercise, you’ll get a sense of the current state of your ambition—if you are looking for an on-ramp and wanting to deepen your commitment to your career and getting to the next level or if you might be looking for an off-ramp or a downshift in your career. When it comes to Ambition, we need to start to accept that it can ebb and flow over one’s lifetime. Our innate ambition is likely set—we are ambitious or we are not. But there may be times when we are going to go for it and times when we’ll need to take a break to either rest and rejuvenate or to prioritize another part of our lives.

Depending on the dimensions, you’ll consider different paths as possible next steps. Get the worksheet for this exercise here and read more about Ambition here.

Using this 2x2 grid, you’ll remain in either Quadrants 1 and 2 or Quadrants 3 and 4 depending how you rated yourself in the last Motivation exercise along the x-axis—were you Energized or Drained? 

Now, for the Y-axis, plot where you think you land when considering the state of your How Far or your Ambition. If you have high or increasing Ambition, you have a vision for what you want to achieve and strong desire to reach a particular goal or level in your career. You also are committed to putting in the effort to go after that goal at this time in your life. You want to lean in and go for it. If you have low or decreasing Ambition, you may not have a vision for what you want to achieve or may be feeling like you can’t commit the time and effort right now in your life to get to the next rung. You might be feeling like you need or want to pull back for a time and focus some of your energy on other endeavors.

Quadrant 1

If you are in Quadrant 1, like in the prior exercise, we call this “Engaged.” This is exciting! Again, you are in a position to deepen your commitment. You feel good about the state of your career and are clear about your What, Why, and How Far. You may have found your calling, and you are seeking your next challenge. Ask yourself:

  • What’s the next rung you want to reach?

  • What’s the next skill you need to learn or gap you need to fill to get to the next level?

  • Is there a project, assignment, or job change you can take to stretch you and get you closer to your goal?

If you were in Quadrant 2 in the first Exercise but find yourself now in Quadrant 1, you have Ambition working on your side. It would be helpful to find the Purpose in your work, as it will give you the extra motivation you may need to continue to push to reach your goals.

Quadrant 2

If you are in Quadrant 2, we call this “Reprioritizing.” If you were in Quadrant 1 or 2 in the last exercise and in this one find yourself here, the actions you take will depend on the driver of the state of your ambition. The good news is that you are motivated by what you do, but your ambition is waning for whatever reason. Are you just not clear on your ambition and where you want to reach next? Have you already reached the level you sought to achieve? Are you not ready right now to put in the effort you know it will take to reach the next level? Perhaps you want to coast for a bit? Or, do you have other demands on your time and you need to rebalance your work and personal priorities?

The solutions in this case could range from working on identifying your next ambitious goal to taking a lateral role or finding alternative work arrangements that utilize your skills but offer more flexibility and time to put towards the other things in your life requiring your time. It could mean not changing your job at all, but instead working diligently to reset priorities, reallocate the time you are willing to give to work, and put in place new structures that give you the flexibility you may be seeking. When you find yourself in this position (enjoying your work, but have waning ambition), there’s good reason to keep your foot in the door and explore options that align with where your ambition sits today.

A final consideration if you were in Quadrant 2, “Primed,” in the last Exercise—one may find this is the case, because she hasn’t yet found the Purpose and Meaning in her work. By doing so, one might find that Ambition gets reignited, and you re-appraise the rating on this scale, moving up into Quadrant 1 in this exercise and the former, too. So, explore there first to see if defining a Purpose and finding that Meaning fuels your ambition.

Quadrant 3

If you are in Quadrant 3, we call this “Restless.” You may have been in Quadrant 3, “Drained,” in the last exercise—feeling like your work has meaning, but you aren’t energized right now. Here you note that you have high and increasing ambition. There could be several factors at play making you put yourself in this quadrant. Perhaps you want to lean in but are too burnt out to do so right now. You might need a break before you can recommit and go for what you want next. As noted in the last exercise, you also might be in a position where you aren’t sufficiently challenged—you’re drained, because you’re bored. If that’s the case and given your ambition level, it’s time to seek a new project or assignment that stretches you towards your goals.

In the last exercise, you may have also been in Quadrant 4, “Disoriented,” yet find yourself still having Ambition. What a great place to be! That’s because you are excited and motivated to find new possibilities and what’s going to challenge you next. It could be that you have a vision for where you want to go, but you’ve just been on the wrong path. You need to set yourself up to align your What and Why to your How Far. Or, you could have the desire to strive, but aren’t sure where to apply yourself now. In this case, like in the last exercise, it would be good to explore your What and Why and identify possible new paths. If you go in this direction, it’s important to explore different options and test them until you find the right fit. It’s helpful to test possible paths before you fully commit. To read more about our thoughts on testing different options, you can read more here. 

Quadrant 4

Finally, if you are in Quadrant 4, we call this “Disoriented,” like in the last exercise. Again, it might be time to explore new options and possibilities. It’s worthy of a broader exploration of your What, Why, and How Far to make sure that you’re in alignment with what motivates you. Start to pay attention to the activities that are attracting you, and which are pushing you away. What are you curious about right now? How do you want to contribute? What might you like to master? Where do you want to excel? You can find more probing questions here. During this time, it is likely fine to take a “job,” deliver solid work and earn money while you lay the foundation for what might be next. And like we noted in Quadrant 3, be sure to test your way into new areas and roles.  

A Final Note

Again, note that you may not fall squarely into one of the boxes in the grid. You might be partly in one and another. That’s okay, of course. This is just a guide to give you a sense of how you are feeling about your career and your level of ambition in this moment and provides probes to ask yourself to help you gauge next steps. In addition, if you come back to this exercise over time, don’t be surprised if you move. As we note earlier, our ambition ebbs and flows over time. You may be ready to dig into a new endeavor now when you weren’t ready in the past. Or, you may have renewed energy behind a curiosity or new opportunity that has kicked you into an Engaged state. Inquiry and embrace how you are feeling about your level of ambition over time and let it help guide your next actions.

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NOTE: These tools are in Beta format. We’d appreciate any feedback you have on if it works for you, what doesn’t work for you, what could improve it, or any other feedback that you think would be valuable to make this a more useful tool for people.

 
 

Create a Decade by Decade Horizon Map

A Horizon Map allows you to look back and review what you’ve accomplished and gained from all of your experiences to date, while more importantly starting to frame a decade by decade view that allows you to outline what you want to manifest in the future.

I’ve found that people can often be surprised at how they are feeling at mid-career, all of a sudden not realizing they are not fulfilled by their work. The feeling has likely been building over time, but the subtle calls have not surfaced to alert people that something is going to need to change. By doing this type of exercise, one can raise awareness, start to pay attention, accept that change is inevitable in our career lives, and be better prepared to shape one’s destiny, while also remaining flexible to what may serendipitously come your way. With a clear view of your life purpose and the future state you want to create, you can more clearly define the next steps to take on your journey.

This exercise is partly inspired by David Allen’s Horizons of Focus model, in which he frames different horizons and timeframes for getting things accomplished in life. The highest levels are focused on foundational topics, Purpose & Principles, Vision, and Goals. The lower levels are focused on near-in workstreams and current action items. 

Using this concept of levels and timeframes, we’ve outlined a Decade by Decade Horizon Map for late-stage career planning. You’ll first start by framing a rough idea of what you want for your long-term future, considering your life’s purpose, personal values, and personal goals that will help guide your actions over the next 5 or more years. This will essentially serve as an ideal vision for what you want your life to look like in the future. Then you’ll consider what you want your experiences to be in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s with the ultimate goal to align your career and work to the future life you seek and your life’s purpose.

Here’s how to create a Decade by Decade Horizon Map:

(Find templates here.)

1. Visioning: Life Purpose and Desired Future State (refer to Template 1).

As we note in this article, getting clear on your “Why” or Purpose can have a powerful impact on performance. And, as we get older, I find that more people are wanting to make a positive impact through their work or side initiatives. Thus, it’s helpful at this stage to get clear on your life purpose. This doesn’t have to be overly grand, but it should serve as a guidepost.  Here are a few tool options to help you identify your purpose:

As part of this step, it can also be helpful to get clear on your values, as these can provide direction, as well. Here’s an article that can help you do this.

We also offer templates in our Tool Workbook to capture your Values. One approach to uncovering values is through investigating Peak and Negative Experiences*. Inquire and explore both asking: What values were honored? What values weren’t honored? By doing such exploration you can unlock what is important to you. It may be helpful to reference a list of Values, which you can find here.

You can also explore values by considering what traits in others you don’t like or that push you away from a person. By reversing the traits you don’t like, you can uncover what is important to you. For example, if you are put off by overly ego-driven individuals, you might value being humble or prioritizing serving others. If you are put off by people not being caring and giving, you might value generosity.

If those two activities feel like too big of a task, move on to a visioning exercise. Envision your desired future state 10 to 20 years from now of what you want your life to be like. Pick the horizon that is most comfortable for you, as some people find it difficult to envision too far in the future. When doing this visioning, consider various elements of your life, as we note below: Career or Vocation, Family, Community & Relationships, Health (physical, mental, emotional), Financial, Growth & Learning, and Fun & Recreation. Ask yourself: What would you want your life to look like? What do you want to manifest? What do you really want to happen? What can’t you not do by the end of this time period? What do you want to be doing? How do you want to be? Who do you want to be with? Where do you want to be? What do you want to have achieved? What would make you feel fulfilled in that end time period? What don’t you want? 

Consider drawing your vision and not just capturing it in words. Or take your words and create a visual map of sorts that brings your vision to life. You can even pull pictures from magazines or source them on the internet to add to your drawing. Create a Pinterest board if that suits you.

In the end, this doesn’t have to be overly comprehensive. Focus on the most significant factors that are really important to you and that have the strongest presence when you close your eyes and dream of that future state. To complete this task, now look at what you’ve envisioned and star the top three goals that are most important to you to achieve or experience by this timeframe.

*Exercise inspired by: “Mountains and Valleys” by CultureSync.

2. Horizons (refer to Template 2).

With a defined end point, frame what you want and need to experience or achieve across horizons (5-year blocks) to realize your end state vision again considering different facets of life: Career or Vocation, Family, Community & Relationships, Health (physical, mental, emotional), Financial, Growth & Learning, and Fun & Recreation. Start from the end and work backwards, setting high-level milestones for each 5-year timeframe. Know that while you are laying this out now, what you are documenting is just a rough idea of what you want to do and achieve at different times in life. Don’t feel compelled to fill in something for every topic in every timeframe. Do what feels right for you. And, yes, the point is to help you reach your end goal, but also be open to and know that things will change, new opportunities will arise, your interests may shift, and so on. 

Do focus on getting more clear on where you’d like to be five years from now considering your end state vision. This will help you in developing your Action Plan, which we’ll speak to more below.

3. Current State (refer to Templates 3a-3b).

Get clear on where you stand today as it relates to your vision and goals for your most immediate 5-year block horizon. Do you feel you are on-track? Do you see gaps? Just make note of them now before we get to the final stage for building an Action Plan (refer to Template 3a.)

Before you move on, also go back to the same dimensions noted in Step 2 and consider what you shaped in your 20’s and 30’s. Think about all your experiences in your career and life so far and take note of what you might have achieved and skills and experiences you’ve acquired. (Refer to Template 3b.) Then step back and consider (refer back to Template 3a to summarize):

  • When you consider what you’ve learned to date and your skills and knowledge, at this stage what might you want to carry forward and what you might want to retire

  • Then also look back at your experiences and key events in your life and explore and make note of what trends or threads you notice are present over the decades.

 4. Balance (refer to Template 2).

When thinking about work, there’s always a lot of talk of work-life balance. Our belief is that we need to make choices about where we invest our time, consider if we want to lean towards career or towards personal needs, and then create a work environment that integrates well (or as well as it can) with your life. There are only 24 hours in a day, and we aren’t going to change that. We can only change where we put our attention and how productive we make those hours, but we can’t bend time… yet. So, consider in your current state, where you want to lean—towards career or personal goals or needs. Then, go back to your horizon map and put simple percentages of how you’d like to balance your time towards career or personal life (is it 70/30 or 50/50 or 25/75?). It’s helpful to keep this in mind as you consider solutions for supporting the life you seek.

 5. Action Plan (refer to Template 4). Now let’s focus again on the most immediate 5-year block and break it down into what you need to achieve in the 3-5 year timeframe and then the next 1-2 year timeframe. Note that actions might actually include taking a break or sabbatical. It may not all be doing, doing, doing. What’s helpful in doing this exercise is that you can more thoughtfully stage and plan for key activities, mapping how they’ll fit in relation to other goals you might have for your life. Another example—you might need to get additional training to get to your ultimate vision, or you might want to live abroad a year. How can you fit these in? Finally, consider the next year and each quarter. What actions do you want to take and what do you want to achieve to forward your vision? You can use this same model to breakdown a year, month, week into finer timeframes to help you focus and stay aligned with your ultimate purpose and goals. This is where David Allen’s model can be a big help. You can learn more in this post. 

Another thing to consider at this moment is that you might not be 100% clear on what you want your career to look like right now and in the future. So, your action plan may have broad strokes and be guided more towards overall life goals. It won’t be uncommon to find that you need to do more work on identifying the next path on your career journey. For additional guidance on finding that next path, read “Craft What’s Next and Get Into Action.”

A Decade by Decade Horizon Map is something you can come back to and adjust over time as needed.

I’ve created one for myself, and I routinely check back to it each year and then reassess my annual goals and projects based on how I’m feeling. It shouldn’t be a static document, but rather one that grows with you. It also doesn’t have to mean that you need to start from scratch each year, because we don’t really change that much. The world around us changes, our priorities can shift, new curiosities can arise, but our core is fairly rooted. Finally, remember that for the further out time horizons, the map serves as a rough guide. It’s unlikely you’ll predict now that you’ll meet some milestone in a particular year, say, so don’t get too attached to actual timeframes and specifics. Things may shift some, and that is okay as long as you feel that overall you are moving in accordance with the long-term vision you still seek.

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NOTE: This tool is in Beta format. We’d appreciate any feedback you have on if it works for you, what doesn’t work for you, what could improve it, or any other feedback that you think would be valuable to make this a more useful tool for people.

Kathy Oneto