The Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti is credited with the statement that the ability to observe without judgement was the highest form of human intelligence. Learning this skill can give your career a new direction.
What do we do instead? We experience situations and unconsciously evaluate them emotionally. Our emotions should allow us to avoid comparable situations in the future if the previous reference experience was unpleasant or to seek them out if it was pleasant. Our experiences are therefore virtually bagged up, neatly labelled and stored somewhere in the depths of our brain.
In addition to the positive effects of this automatism – otherwise we would hardly be equipped with it – these memories occasionally do their worst as prejudices. They then prevent us from perceiving people and situations in an unbiased way – in other words, from observing without judgement.
In addition to this automatism, we also consciously judge experiences. But the effect is the same: The judgements are related to the past, but influence our decisions in the here and now.
Self-understanding through self-observation
Let’s apply these considerations to career design. Many people would like to make a career change and give their career a new direction. They try to come up with new ideas through reflection, but realise that they are not getting anywhere. Our thinking about career is also shaped by our experiences and the interpretations we have gained from them – in other words, it is orientated towards the past. So how can we find out in which direction we want to develop professionally today? Through unbiased self-observation!
Think back to the beginning of your career. Like most people, you probably didn’t really know what you wanted to do professionally. In the end, you decided on a career path without knowing exactly why. You gained your first experiences and used them to develop in a certain direction. These first career decisions were probably somewhat unconscious or seemed inevitable – many people feel that the first few years of their career were determined by chance. You could say they were decisions based on unconscious observation.
Conscious self-observation with storytelling
After a few years in professional life, many people come to the point where they want to take their career into their own hands by making conscious decisions.
In order to get to the bottom of your personal interests and inclinations in your personal and professional assessment, it is again a matter of observation. But now you are consciously observing. As part of «career telling» and storytelling, you analyse your professional past, observe yourself in your stories independently of previous interpretations and come to new conclusions. And in your everyday working life, you will also become more aware of what you like and what is good for you. And by analysing all these observations, you come to a conclusion about what you want to do professionally.
We can only come to new conclusions if we observe ourselves again and again and without previous interpretations.