Just over four years after the world shut down amid the rising tide of COVID-19, we are still picking up the pieces of that crisis and the years of socioeconomic challenges that followed. There’s a lot I would love to erase from that time, but one thing I would not wash away is the new perspective that emerged in the world of work.

It rapidly became clear that inflexible jobs, scripted career paths and employers that treat people as productivity machines weren’t right for a changing world.

My book Professional Careers by Design was already taking shape in my mind in 2020, but it was the magnitude of challenge and change we all faced that helped me put pen to paper. Fortunately, the model it’s based on is a framework for designing a work life that works better for you, no matter what life throws your way.

It’s simple, flexible and built for a lifetime.

Discernment: Clarifying your priorities

I call the first stage of Professional Career Design discernment – because it’s all about exploring and clarifying the priorities that will guide your career decision-making. You can actually start on this today, right now, by creating a list of what matters most to you, then looking at your career decisions through that lens. If you are exploring a job offer, consider how accepting or rejecting it will affect the things that matter most to you. Will you have more or less of what you care most about? And if the answer is “less,” is it really right for you?

Maybe not.

Managing change: Acting on your priorities

After you have clarified your priorities and started using some helpful tools for making decisions based on those priorities, you are likely to start thinking about putting your plans into action. That’s why the second stage of Professional Careers by Design is managing change.

Again, the priorities you’ve outlined take center stage as you consider job opportunities and act on those that are right for you. There is an art and science to seeking and starting a new role with intention and integrity. My Career Transitions Cycle prepares you to do just that.

Lifelong context: Enabling a lifetime of growth and satisfaction

I often urge clients to think of their careers as something living and dynamic. Careers need care and feeding to thrive, and a set-it-and-forget it mindset may mean they wither.

My Life Course approach to Professional Career Design empowers professionals to use the Discernment and Managing Change models to forge a professional life that ebbs and flows as life happens and at every stage. The lessons you’ll learn will help you ensure your professional life never stops evolving to better serve you and your priorities.

Our new world of work

I grew up imagining myself stepping onto a career ladder and climbing, climbing to some great reward at the end of my journey. Now, having come through a significant portion of my work life, and having experienced the profound shifts that the pandemic and Great Resignation brought to our Western mindset about work and careers, I understand that the rewards are in the journey and in the satisfaction my career enables me to achieve both at work and outside it. Many professionals understand this now, too. I wrote Professional Careers by Design to enable them to make it happen. To enable you to make it happen.

Preorder your copy here, and if these ideas inspire you, be sure to join The Bespoke Life Network, our growing community of professionals who are building their own Bespoke Lives. It’s free and open to anyone, regardless of whether you read the book.