You’ve come to the realization that it’s time to up your game. Your career is at a standstill, or you’re just tired of doing what you’ve been doing so far. Maybe it’s not paying well, there isn’t a future in this “just to pay bills” job, or you’ve become burned out on what was once your “dream job.” Now, what do you do?

About 30% of Americans see their jobs as “just a job,” something they do to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, with about 18% considering their job as a “stepping stone” to a career.

If you’re not thrilled with your current job situation, quitting outright probably isn’t a good idea, especially if you’re taking care of a family. More and more people are finding themselves supporting a family on their own without a plan, but don’t have a way to change that. “Do what you love” may not apply here. Just because you love to play video games doesn’t mean you can get a well-paying job playing them. Or you’re thinking, “if I didn’t have a family, I could do XXX for a living, that would be great!” So it’s time for some serious evaluation.

Heart - Figuring Out What You Really Want

Your first step is to discover what kind of career is right for you. If you have a family, you’ll need to consider them as well, and what’s really important to you.

Finding your perfect career is more than just, “I want to be a lawyer,” or “I want to be a farmer who raises avocados and pigs.”  Both vocations serve a purpose, but if being a lawyer just isn’t you, you’ll be looking for the exit door just before 5:00 pm every day and looking at farmland on your smartphone during lunch.

The first place to start is to find out:

• Your interests
• Your skills
• Your strengths and talents
• Your personality—are you a leader, follower, a thinker, a doer?
• Your core values—what do you consider truly important, both in your job and your employer? What kind of employer do you want to work for?

Once you answer these questions, you can work with the more logical part of your decision making.

Mind - Logical

While the heart is responsible for things like intuition, the mind is the rational, logical side of you.

Once you’ve answered the first set of questions, you’ll answer practical questions like:

• What training and/or certification would you need? What jobs are available in your chosen career once you’ve completed that training?
   
• Where do you want to live? Do you want to stay in the hometown you grew up in, or move to a bigger city that’s more exciting, or someplace that’s better for your family?
   
• How much money do you want to make, or how much money you can make in the career you’ve chosen? Your income will determine where you can afford to live, whether you’ll live alone or with a roommate, or even if you can afford to move somewhere else. This is especially true if you have student loans you’ll soon begin paying, and of course, a consideration if you’re supporting a family.
   
• Determine why you are interested in pursuing the career you’re considering. Is it just something you do to get by, or will you make a difference? Is this career a step in the right direction, a step up, or a completely new direction that will give you more satisfaction than you have now?

Analyzing these wants against your needs will give you a clearer picture of what kind of career path you’ll be happier with.

Tying Them Together

The mind and heart can work together to help you further both your personal and career development and provide a balance between the two. Motivation is heart-driven, the rational mind “steers” it. If we were all just “logical,” we wouldn’t be terribly interesting. If we were all “heart-driven” we wouldn’t get much done.

But what does that actually mean on a practical level?

Think about where you are now, and where you want to go. Does it look better than where you are now? Does it feel like you’re taking a step in the right direction, or better, a step up from where you are?

It’s one thing to go head-on into a new career without finding out what it’s really like. It’s another to not only research a new career, but find out for yourself whether it will be a career that you can live with, do well with, and go home at the end of the day ready to go to work tomorrow. Without researching and using the heart/mind combination to find a new career path and skill that will work for you, it may be you in that 30% who hates it when the alarm clock goes off every morning.

If you’ve considered a new career in SAP, or an advancement in your current SAP career, it’s time to take the next step towards making that goal happen. Where do you start? With the right online training, of course. A career in SAP can open doors into some of the world’s biggest companies, across town or across the world, with a career in IT that will take you anywhere you want to go.

Ready to take the next step? SAP is one of the best in-demand IT skills you can learn to better yourself and get on a new career path with a large company, and we’re ready to help. Michael Management can help you advance to a better career and a better life with training to start finding your new career path right away.

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