It is one of the most common career questions I hear:
What should I do next?
It sounds sensible. Practical. Forward-looking. But I’m not sure it is the best place to start.
Because when we ask what should I do next? too quickly, we usually start searching for answers in the obvious places. The next role. The next promotion. The next organisation. The next qualification. The next logical move.
And before we know it, we are solving for movement rather than meaning.
That is how people end up changing jobs and discovering six months later that they have recreated almost exactly the same problem in a different organisation.
The better starting point is not the opportunity. It is you.
Before deciding what comes next, it helps to understand what has changed in you, what you want more of, what you want less of and what kind of life your career now needs to support. Because careers are not designed in isolation.
The role might be brilliant, but if it comes with constant travel when what you want now is more time at home, it is probably not the right role. The promotion might look fantastic on paper, but if it takes you further away from the work you love, it may not feel like progress at all.
So instead of immediately asking, What should I do next?, try asking better questions.
1. What do I want more of now?
More challenge? More freedom? More influence? More creativity? More flexibility? More meaning? More money? More time?
There is no right answer.
What matters is being honest about what “more” means to you now, rather than automatically pursuing someone else’s version of success.
2. What have I outgrown?
This is a powerful question because something does not need to be bad for you to have outgrown it.
Maybe the role still looks good, but it no longer stretches you. Maybe the culture once suited you but does not anymore. Maybe you have become very good at work you no longer want to spend your life doing.
Recognising that something has run its course is not failure.
It is information.
3. When am I at my best?
Think about the moments in your career when you feel most energised, useful and alive.
What are you doing? Who are you working with? What kind of problems are you solving? What strengths are you using?
Those moments are clues.
We often spend too much time asking what roles we are qualified for and not enough time asking what kind of work consistently brings out our best.
4. What do I want my career to make possible in my life?
Your career is not the whole picture. It is one part of the life you are building.
So what do you want it to make possible? Time with family? Financial freedom? Travel? Contribution? Flexibility? Learning? Adventure? Security?
A career can look successful and still be completely wrong for the life you want.
5. If I stopped worrying about what I “should” do, what would I be curious about?
I love this one because curiosity creates options without demanding an immediate decision.
You do not have to resign. You do not have to commit. You do not have to know exactly where something will lead.
You can have a conversation. Explore an industry. Meet someone doing interesting work. Test an idea. Learn something new.
Sometimes career direction does not arrive as a lightning bolt.
It emerges because you gave yourself permission to explore.
6. What am I prepared to change to create what I want?
Wanting something different is one thing. Creating it requires something from us.
You may need to learn. Ask. Network. Become more visible. Let go of status. Take a sideways move. Set a boundary. Have a difficult conversation. Give up some certainty.
There is usually a trade-off somewhere.
The question is whether what you are creating matters enough to make it.
This is exactly the kind of work at the heart of Designed For More: Build a Life and Career You Love.
The book is not designed to tell you what your next career move should be. I could not possibly know that. It is designed to help you know yourself well enough to make that decision with more clarity.
So if you are wondering what comes next, resist the urge to rush straight to the answer. Pause first. Ask better questions.
You might find that the direction becomes much clearer once you stop asking yourself what you should do and start paying attention to what you actually want to create.
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