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Your career will inevitably go through transitions, some voluntary and others involuntary. Voluntary transitions could be triggered by a calendar year’s end, your desire for more flexible work, or the realization that the time has come for you to finally listen to what your inner voice has been telling you. Involuntary transitions may result from restructuring within your organization, getting laid off, or being afflicted with a sudden health issue.

Regardless of the cause, transitions often open up a mix of personal and practical challenges that range from clarifying exactly what’s next to rewriting your cover letter and resume. Successfully managing any professional transition involves first reflecting on where things stand in your career, then taking concrete action to make your professional ambitions a reality.

First, Assess Your Current Situation

Before you embark on any career change journey, take a moment to take stock of where things currently stand and what changes you want to make by asking yourself three questions.

1. How Satisfied Am I With My Career?

When you consider your current professional situation, rate your level of satisfaction across the various aspects of your job you consider most important. You could consider high-level job characteristics like location, industry, organization, function, role, and salary. You could also consider other factors that affect your daily satisfaction like pathways for growth, work-life balance, your manager’s supportiveness, engagement with your work, or opportunities to leverage your skills, interests, and strengths.

2. What Do I Want More Of?

After doing a situation assessment and identifying any outages, especially in areas most important to you, reflect on exactly what you want more of in both your life and career. Start with your life and consider domains like your relationships, physical health, emotional well-being, personal growth, family, or recreation.

Then, think about your career itself. What would you like to have more of in your day-to-day professional life? Consider both the practical and emotional aspects of your job. For example, on the practical front, do you want more people-management responsibilities? More opportunities to lead certain projects? Or more money? On the emotional front, do you want to feel more energized by your work? More alignment with your organization’s culture? Or just more interest in the product, service, or brand you’re managing?

3. What Matters Most To Me Right Now?

Well, it’s complicated. Often, when considering what you want for your life and career, competing interests can arise. Having more organizational responsibility may mean you’ll work longer hours, which could compromise your work-life balance. Doing work that aligns more closely with you values may mean walking away from your stable job in an established industry to work in a less predictable, but more energizing environment.

Having it all is nearly impossible. You have to decide which priorities you want to serve during this specific chapter in your life and career and which trade-offs you’re then willing to make. The reality is, you often need to let go of one thing to make room for something else more important to you.

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Then, Act With Intention

After reflecting on where you are and what you want, you must eventually take action to open new opportunities for yourself. Start by taking these three actions.

1. Brainstorm And Identify Lead Options

When making a major move in your career, casting the net wide, at least initially, can often open your eyes to promising opportunities you could otherwise overlook. First, brainstorm all the possible paths you could take in your career without judgment. Consider your natural interests or something you’ve always thought about pursuing. Reflect on those activities you once enjoyed as a child before societal judgement and life pressures set in. Browse articles that highlight hot jobs, growing industries, or companies proactively hiring.

While no path may immediately jump out to you, focus on those that could broadly take your career in a more promising direction. If you struggle to narrow your options, try filtering your list by evaluating whether you can leverage any of your current skills, where you could add unique value, which organizations have people you admire, and of course, what path is financially viable. If the list is still too long, target those opportunities that could provide you with more of what matters most to you right now.

2. Update Job Materials

Creating precise job materials with a clear positioning is much easier once you know exactly which role or opportunity you’re targeting. However, even if you only have a rough idea of which opportunities may be interesting, you can reduce the friction of pursuing them by updating a few key job search materials.

First, create a cover letter template. While eventually customizing your cover letter is important, start by having a broad structure written out so you can more easily fill in the blanks later. Your cover letter template should include at least three parts: why you’re interested, what makes you a strong candidate, and administrative next steps.

Second, update your social profiles. You should assume hiring managers and recruiters will be Googling you online. On LinkedIn, update your professional headline, summary statement, featured content area, work history, and ideally, your recommendations section. On Twitter, update your summary description and ensure your publicly visible tweets align with your desired personal brand. On Facebook and Instagram, ensure your happy with how your bio, About section, and publicly visible content appear. Take a couple minutes to do a Facebook Privacy Checkup. Across all social platforms, ensure you have an up-to-date profile photo and header image featured at the top.

Third, update your resume. Your full work history should include your job responsibilities and key accomplishments, especially those that align well with your target opportunities.

3. Explore Potential Paths Proactively

In my ten years of working with clients and audiences navigating career transitions, the vast majority did not necessarily know exactly where to take their careers next. However, they embraced experimentation and exploration to illuminate potential paths forward. Engaging in the following three activities can help you understand where to take your career next.

First, reconnect with existing contacts in your network, which not only allows you to know you’re on the hunt but also enables you to be in the right place at the right time. Focus on rekindling existing relationships with key contacts including former managers, colleagues, recruiters, industry contacts, mentors, school alumni, and really anyone with whom you enjoy connecting.

Second, build new relationships. Conduct informational interviews to learn about a new sector, role, location, or company. Tap into online resources like EventbriteEB -4.9%, Lunchclub, Fishbowl, Hive Index, and TheOrg to uncover opportunities to virtually engage with new professionals and communities. Try to surround yourself with people you admire living the life you desire for yourself.

Finally, dip your toe into new professional paths you’re considering in a low-risk fashion. Upskilling through an online course or certification program can help you expand your skillset, bolster your credentials, and test how much you enjoy this new path. Attend an industry conference or talk. Volunteer your time.

Make Your Move Once You Feel Ready . . . Enough

At some point, the only way to really know whether a new career path can work for you is to go for it. To change industries, pivot into that other role, or move to a different organization. To take a sabbatical, shift to a different work arrangement, or focus more on your family or personal interests for a while. Or to start that business, launch that initiative, or finally follow up with that person who’s been trying to convince you to go for a certain opportunity.

Navigating any professional transition will always feel uncharted, unsettling, and uncertain. Making this effort to patiently assess what you truly want and then proactively take small steps to start the next chapter in your career will help you be more deliberate and intentional when you decide to make your leap.

Forbes.com | December 2, 2022  | Joseph Liu