Transcript
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Ever feel like you're grinding, but you have no idea if you're actually moving forward? Maybe you're staying late. Saying yes to everything. Doing all the things you're supposed to do to get ahead at work.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: but somewhere underneath it all. There's this quiet question you just can't shake. Am I actually going somewhere? Or am I just really good at staying busy?
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: I'm Tess Taylor and this is work morrow. The show where we figure out what's next together. In this episode, we're talking about something that sounds simple.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: but most of us skip entirely. actually knowing where you stand. Not where you think you stand. Not where you hope you stand. where you actually stand right now.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: In this moment. By the end of this episode, you're going to have a few questions that will take you five minutes. and could save you years of grinding in the wrong direction.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Let's get into it. Here's the thing about career fog. It doesn't feel dramatic. It doesn't feel like a crisis. It feels like just another Tuesday.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: You get up. You go to work. You do a good job. You come home tired and somewhere in there you stop asking whether any of it is building towards something because asking feels like it might blow the whole thing up.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: I've watched this play out over and over in my own life. and in the people I've worked with. The cost of that fog isn't dramatic either. It's quiet. It's burnout that sneaks up on you because you're pouring effort into things that really don't actually matter to you.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: It's the missed opportunity you didn't even see. because you were so heads down in the day -to -day. that you weren't looking up. It's waking up five years from now in the exact same spot. except more tired.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: I know this one personally. I spent years building a career while carrying things most people around me never really knew about. financial struggles, a chronic illness that I was managing quietly.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: people underestimating me at almost every turn. And for a long time, I just kept my head down and worked harder. Because working harder was the only lever I knew how to pull.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: It took me a long time to realize that that harder wasn't the problem. being clear was. The moment everything actually started to shift for me was when I worked more.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Or it wasn't when I was working more, actually. It was when I got brutally honest with myself about where I actually stood, what was working. What wasn't? and what I'd been quietly pretending not to notice.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: that's not a comfortable conversation to have with yourself but it's the one that actually moves you. So I want to bring to your attention my work morrrow career reset course. And in the first lesson, knowing exactly where you stand.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: is what it is built to do. so I built this around 10 simple statements about your current work. Things like my work uses my strongest abilities or.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: My work feels meaningful to me. When you take the course you'll be able to take this personal and professional assessment and learn more about you. Big in idea number two, and this is the one that surprises people is that your lowest scores are actually not your failures.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: When you take the assessment, you will realize that these are actually your arrows it's the direction you need to go to be able to find your way. And thirdly, the reflection questions that you will encounter in the course.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: actually matter more than the numbers. So after you rate your 10 statements, I'll be asking you some additional questions like what's working, what's not working. What do you want more of? What do you want less of?
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: So it gives you a chance to take a little time And sit with it for a little while and just learn a little bit about yourself and where you really want to go. and where you are now.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: So think about this. If nothing in your work changed for, let's say the next three years, how would that actually feel for you? For some of you, that question is going to bring up relief actually because things are basically fine right now and you just needed to hear that or at least you'd believe that but for a lot of you that question is going to bring up something closer to maybe some anxiety or dread And you know what? That is not a bad sign.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: It's data. It's your own truth. Finally getting a chance to talk.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: So if you're listening to this, I would like to ask you a few things to think about this week. I'd like you to grab a notebook or you can use your phone or whatever you actually use and sit with a few of these questions.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: One. What did you do this month that a... hiring manager or recruiter would find impressive. And can you name it in one sentence? Not a paragraph, just one sentence.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: If you can't name it. That's worth noticing. 2. When is the last time you felt generally proud of your work not just glad it was taken care of and done but actually proud of the work you did And what were you doing?
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Three, if you rated your own work honestly right now, let's say on a scale of one to five. with five being the best. Would you say it uses your strongest abilities?
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: And be honest, not diplomatic. 4. What's one thing about your current work that you've been quietly tolerating? Telling yourself it's not that big a deal when some part of you knows it actually is.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: And five. the big one. if nothing about your work changed for the next three years how would you feel remember i asked you that already Start thinking about that a little bit. Just sit with it.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: And. Write it down. because You want to think about this. This is something that's really important to you where you are right now. But listen, you don't need all the answers today. You just need to ask yourself the questions.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: That's the first step too. resetting. your mind around your careers. So here's something that I don't cover directly in the first lesson of my Career Reset course.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: But I do think about it constantly, especially right now. There's a trap I see people fall into once they start trying to get clear on where they stand and it's this. They confuse busy with progress.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: You can be working incredibly hard saying yes to projects, staying visible, staying productive. and still be completely unclear on whether any of it is moving you towards something you actually want.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Busy feels like evidence. But it isn't. busy is just busy. Clarity is a completely different currency and it's the one that actually compounds.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: And I also want to say something directly to the people who are listening who may be worried about AI and technology and where all of this leaves you. I hear this constantly. Is it even worth reassessing my career right now when everything might be automated in a couple of years anyways?
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Here's my honest take on that. The uncertainty is exactly why clarity matters more right now, not less. When the ground is shifting, the people who do best.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: Aren't the ones who freeze. They're the ones who know their actual strengths well enough to carry them into whatever comes next. Clarity about who you are and what you bring doesn't expire when the tools and technology changes.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: That's the part AI can never take from you. if you actually know what it is. So whether you're starting out in your career or you're a mid -career. Pivoter. Specifically, this is a nuance worth naming.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: You're not starting from zero. And you need to stop talking to yourself like you are. you have years. Of pattern recognition, judgment and hard -won lessons that someone earlier in their career simply doesn't have yet.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: The assessment we walked through earlier that you will be able to take in the course. It isn't just about erasing that experience and starting over. It's about seeing clearly. The what if.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: you actually want to carry forward. and what you're allowed to finally set down. So that's it for this first episode. If today's episode...
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: struck something in you even just a little i want you to actually do the reflection questions this week Not perfectly, just honestly. And if you want to go deeper. The Work Morrow Career Reset walks you through this exact assessment plus there's three additional courses that will take you from clarity to naming your strengths, to exploring a real direction and...
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: to help you create an actual plan that you can act on in your career. i'll share a link in the show notes below And I'd love to hear what came up for you. feel free to send me a message. And tell me one thing you noticed about where you stand right now.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: And be sure to come back next week because the next episode is about something. Most of us have never actually been taught. how to name our own strengths and values.
Tess C. Taylor, M.Ed., PHR, SHRM-CP: without feeling weird about it. So until then, I'm Tess Taylor. What's next is your future. Let's go build it.