How to decide between two career options

Have you ever found yourself with two different career options in front of you, and you have absolutely no clue which direction you should take?

I get it. How could you know which career option you’ll find more fun, fulfilling, or successful. 

But what if I told you I have created an entirely new way to make career decisions that is going to revolutionize the way you decide?

I call it Decision Envisioning, and it’s where you imagine yourself making the decision in your mind, then use your body as a guidepost for how you should move forward. 

Here’s the simple 4 step process for how to decide between two career options:

1. Imagine yourself going through with career option A

Visualize making the decision in your mind (e.g. going on the interview, saying yes to the job, signing the papers). Get specific here!

Don’t shortcut this part. Really try to walk yourself through the process, all the way up to starting on day 1 and beyond.

2. Notice how your body reacts 

Take note of how your body (intuition) is communicating.

Below are some signals you may experience:

• Stomach feeling settled vs unsettled

• Lungs feeling expansive vs constricted

• Temperature feeling warm vs cold

3. Now wipe the slate clean and picture going through with the other career option (option B)

For this to really work, you need to really wipe the slate clean. This means reset your body and do your best to shake off the imaginary future you just visioned for yourself. 

Once you do that, repeat step 1 with your other option (option B). Visualize making the other decision in your mind—and get specific again! 

4. Compare and contrast how your body reacts

Repeat step 2 and take note of how your body is communicating. 

Once you do that, compare and contrast to the feelings from before.

Did both situations make your stomach turn or did one feel way better in your gut than the other?

After these 4 steps, it’s usually pretty apparent which decision is more aligned with your intuition.

A quick note on intuition vs. fear:

A common question I get is how does one know the difference between intuition vs. fear. 

My response is always the same—fear feels constrictive, intuition feels expansive.

In other words, a decision may feel scary (e.g., quitting your job), but if it’s aligned with your intuition, there will still be a sense of expansiveness to the concept.

On the other hand, a decision that goes against your intuition will always feel constrictive.

Stay tuned for a future blog post on this!

If you found this exercise useful, I highly recommend you check out my Decision Journal which is currently on Amazon. 

You can also watch a video version of this exercise at a talk I gave at Stanford Graduate School of Business.