9 Mandatory Journal Prompts when you’re Ready to Leave a Current Job or Career

It’s no secret. The workforce is changing. Rapidly. Millennials and Gen Z are demanding more from themselves, their managers, their employers.

Buh-bye Old Paradigm! And thankfully, job hoppers aren’t penalized for career pivots as much as Baby Boomers like to warn about. Don’t let anyone tell you differently!

You aren’t going to stay at your current job forever. No one will. And that’s OK. Before you rush your empowered self into your manager’s office to quit, take a beat.

Yes, I’m giving you permission to make big moves when your career is no longer serving you.

But, I want you to keep moving up in the world. Not repeating the same mistakes over & over again (like I did for years before learning better ~cough~)

Before you make any decisions, take some time for some reflection and self-awareness. Then, make decisions from this space.

Here are my 9 mandatory journal prompts that I go through before I make any transition:

1- What are my long term career goals (5-10 years)? Why are these my goals? What is driving these goals? How does this fit into my vision for my ideal life?

It’s important to know your destination. Duh. If you don’t know where you are going, you are never going to get there.

It’s equally important to understand your motivation behind those goals. One day, I realized that my ego alone drove my "director at xx marketing agency" goal. After that, everything shifted very quickly for me… in a very different direction.

2. What do I like most about my current job? What do I like least? Why?

#SuperNerd alert - I actually keep a running list of likes and dislikes from every job I’ve ever had. I revisit it regularly, especially when I feel a transition is coming on.

Why? Every transition should bring you closer to your ideal career & life. This list is a ready-made a scorecard for any future opportunity you might consider.

3. How does/doesn’t my current job serve my long term career goals?

Remember the board game Chutes & Ladders? I used to love it as a kid. You must find those (sometimes) secret ladders in your current situation. Always be moving up. Identify what serves as a perfect launching point toward your goals. Then dive into what has been holding you back.

4. What am I hoping to get out of a new job/career that I don’t have now? How will it serve my long term life/career goals?

SImilar to the last prompt but looking forward. What ladders do you hope to find by making a transition? Let me say now that you will never know any of this definitively until you get there. But having an understanding of what you are hoping to get is vital.

If only I would have figured this out for myself YEARS ago, I would have saved myself a lot of misery. I repeated the same cycle for about 4-5 jobs before I realized what was happening. The details of which are a longer story for another post.

Instead of up-leveling my career, I created my own Bill Murray in Groundhog’s Day scenario.

6. By leaving, am I avoiding any lessons that I actually need to learn & internalize? What are those lessons and Why do I need to learn them now?

In my Groundhog’s Day experience, I realized I didn't learn the lessons the Universe intended. So I continued to get tested.

Most recently for me, it was creating boundaries. Once I realized this, I put all my effort into practicing them as much as I could. That’s when things started to shift quickly.

7. Where am I currently missing important learning/growth opportunities in my role? How can I change my current situation so I can start taking advantage of them?

Squeeze every drop of relevant experience out of your current situation. Take it all to your next adventure. Master your current role. Once you're done with that, go outside of your day-to-day to learn something new. Think outside the box and absorb all you can.

8. Are there any steps I need to take before I decide to leave my job? Are there any events coming up that might affect my transition timeline?

It’s possible you're bored AF at work. But also have 1,295 other things happening in your personal life that need your attention.

It’s ok to desire stability in your career while other things sort themselves out. Press pause on your plan for world domination if your life demands it. Don’t let your ego get in the way.

9. What would it take for me to transition to a new career/job? Money, title, schedule, responsibilities, location? Why?

You’ve done all the reflection you can and still are on the fence. That’s ok. You don’t have to make any decisions now. But, it’s good to know what situation would tip the scales in a different direction for you.

One time, I was perfectly happy at my job but had a great job offer fall into my lap that was also a 30% pay raise. I made the jump without thinking because I had already decided that a pay increase like that was worth the risk for a lateral move.

Tell me what you learned about yourself. Is there anything else I'm missing? Tell me in the comments!