Read This If You're Stuck in a 'Meh' Job & Want Clarity

5 self-coaching questions that snap you out of career ruts

At the start of 2024, I felt lost.

I had a great job. The people were great. The pay was great. The work was… fine.

But every morning, the same thought buzzed in my head:

Is this all there is for me?

I wanted more meaning. More freedom. More control over where my career was going. But I didn’t know what “more” looked like.

So I hired a life coach.

For 2 months, we met weekly. I brought questions. She asked better ones. The kind of questions that force you to sit with your coffee and think hard.

Here are 5 of my favorite questions she used to coach me into more clarity:

• What matters most to you - in work and in life?

• If you weren’t in your current role, what would you love to do instead?

• If you are the CEO, what would you want your product to do?

• If you could create your dream role at your company, what would it look like?

• What can you start doing today, this week, this month to move toward it?

Bonus: Who can you talk to who would champion your idea?

She said something that stuck with me:

“The fastest path to what you want is to use what you’ve already got. Most people don’t.”

And that reminded me of this story…

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How one Googler invented her dream job (and got paid for it)

Picture this: you’re working in a big corporate sales role. You start noticing bad time management is wrecking productivity - for everyone.

What do you do?

Laura Mae Martin spotted the gap.

She was an account manager at Google. Early on, she realized her team’s success hinged on something no one knew how to do well: managing time and energy better.

Being a productivity guru and the go-to person her colleagues always turn to for productivity advice, Laura built a solution.

She created the Productivity@Google program.

At first, it was small - she shared tips with teammates.

But word spread fast and she started running workshops for other teams. Then, she started coaching leaders at Google.

Within a few years, she had created an official role for herself: Executive Productivity Advisor, reporting to Google’s CEO.

Now, this is what she does:

• Coaches top execs on time and energy management

• Runs a 50,000-subscriber internal newsletter

• Advises new hires and global leaders on productivity

How did she do it?

1. Spotted an unmet need - and jumped on it

2. Aligned the need with her interest and strength - she used what she was already doing rather than re-inventing the wheel

3. Proved her value - through weekly action and evidence, and things started to compound

4. Built internal allies - who championed her work

*Story source

If you feel lost, run the 5 questions to coach yourself, and imagine creating a job you love inside where you already are. It happens more often than you’d think.

What might that look like for you?

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P.S. If you run those questions and still feel stuck - that’s your signal for change.

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