If you want a better job, stop looking for one!
 If you’re currently trying to get a job, or unhappy in your current one and wondering if you should leave, then do the smart thing and figure out FIRST what you want to do and where you want to go next. I see so many people madly looking for jobs and applying for as many as they can.
 

• Anything that they can do, or fits their experience.
• Anything that pays better than the pay they are currently on.
• Any organisation, so
• Anything that pays better than the pay they are currently on.
• Any organisation, so long as it’s not this one!
• Anything, just to get away from their current job, trying to move somewhere they are more happy.

But how can you succeed in a move to become more happy, if you’re not really sure what is making you unhappy in this job in the first place?
 The answer is not to madly apply for jobs, but to stop. Stop looking, stop applying and just take stock. You can start by asking yourself simple questions:

• To what extent do I like the people I work with?
• To what extent do I like the work I’m doing?
• To what extent do I like the entitlements and conditions?
• To what extent do I think my strengths are being utilised in this job?
• Do I feel loyalty to this organisation? And why/why not?
• What bits do I love, like, dislike, despise about this job? This organisation?

These can often give you a hint or an indicator of where the problem might be. For example, if you don’t feel aligned to the organisation you’re working for, but enjoy the work you do, then this helps you target the same job, just in a different place. You can then resume your job searching!

MANDY – It only took two jigsaw puzzles to remember who she was.

Now, Mandy is a hard worker. She's a real ‘To Do List’ person, highly internally motivated to do a good job and get things done, but it became clear that she was exhausted. She hadn’t had a holiday in over a decade, she’d moved locations a couple of times and now had spent three years working in a job that was out of alignment with her core values.
 
 We worked on getting her back in touch with herself, rediscovering her strengths, her core motivators and core values, and with support she was able to consider and plan a three-month career break. Three months where she would have no plans or To Do lists. In fact, I suggested she do jigsaw puzzles and just give her mind a break from the tension of work and the stress of trying to find a way to a more suitable position.
 
 Stepping away from her current job, and giving herself permission to rest has been the jolt she needed to get clarity and the space she needed to discover an amazing new opportunity.
 
 In the first five weeks of her break Mandy completed two 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles, more importantly, found the missing pieces of herself.