The myth that makes career decisions so paralyzing

“Michelle, I need your help.”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I need to decide what to do with my career.”
“Ok, what is it about your career you’re deciding on?”
“The rest of it!”

From college seniors about to graduate, to MBAs with 20 years of working experience, countless people have come to me completely stressed out about career decisions.  When I dig deeper into what keeps them in a state of paralysis, unable to move forward, it’s often because they’ve fallen victim to the biggest career myth of all time: that figuring out what you want to do with your career is a single, one-and-done decision.

But deciding what you want to do next in your career is not an irrevocable, “Final Answer!” type of decision.  Careers (and life, for that matter), are the sum of a number of smaller decisions that happen over time.

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