Episode 35: How to use your intuition to find the right career with Career Clarity coach Nicki Dunnavant

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you! 

Ever gotten the sense that you can “think” or “know” truths beyond just using your brain?

Back in 2013, I was working in communications consulting in D.C. and was asked to support major video game company Activision with the release of a new version of a little video game you might’ve heard of: Call of Duty.  This was a big, high-profile launch, and our client needed help manning social media channels to troubleshoot user problems around Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

On its face, this was a huge career opportunity. Activision is a worldwide brand, getting experience in social listening and “crisis” response would look good on my resume, and adding a consumer-facing brand to my portfolio would make my experience more diversified.

The tradeoff was: I had to work the full day on Thanksgiving. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! My family has to do multiple Thanksgivings every year anyway! (Anybody else have so much family that they double or triple up on Thanksgiving celebrations every year?)

I could rationalize my way into saying “Yes” ten different ways. 

And yet, something intuitively inside me said, “Don’t do this.”

Spoiler alert: I said yes anyways.

For the entire day, I stared at a never-ending Twitter feed of rage tweets and felt guilty (and ashamed) as I answered basement-dwelling teenage boys instead of hanging out with my grandparents and cousins and stuffing my face with mashed potatoes.

You ever gotten an intuitive “nudge” like this that you can’t explain?

One that says, “This might look like a ‘smart’ decision, but you’re going to regret it because you’re totally crossing a boundary”?

If you are well attuned to using your intuition in your life, grab your crystals and sage, because today’s interview with intuitive (and feminist as fuck) Career Clarity coach Nicki Dunnavant is gonna help you better tap into that intuition at work and use it to align your energy with the ideal work activities for you.

Our conversation and exploration spans everything from “how do I know what intuition even is” all the way to nerding out about ornithology (and unicorns). Suffice it to say, we cover a lot of ground and try a bunch of fun metaphors to make this admittedly intangible stuff as practical and actionable (even for those who don’t skew *too* woo).

What is intuition? 

“Intuition” is a squishy, tricky term to define! You can’t really see it or touch it, but you can feel it and hear it. 

Your intuition is the part of you that knows whether saying “fine” means “I’m good with this” or “I cannot handle much more of this thing.” It’s the part of your gut that starts secretly wondering “what if…” It’s the piece of your soul that naturally leans into the fun projects in your life. (Here at Career Clarity, we refer to “fun” as the F word of careers: typically verboten to be even spoken aloud, but feels exhilarating to let yourself say and want.)  

Your intuition is the part of you that knows when you’re feeling right. 

As Nicki says, “You don’t have to meditate every day to notice this is what’s feeling right.”

Want to heighten your awareness and know when your intuition is guiding you? Start by noticing the ease, flow, and peaceful energy in your day. What projects make those feelings easiest to feel? (And, 10 points to Gryffindor if you notice the projects where those feelings felt impossible to feel.) When you notice flow and fun in your day, take a hot second to write down what you were doing that generated the good feels. You’re starting to create a more analytical, concrete list to capture the intuitive nudges and instincts you have during your day. This practice helps you better start noticing them in the moment and flowing with their energy.  

Conversely, if you try your hardest to pay attention but don’t notice *any* good feels at all at work during your week…we should talk. 

What is resistance?

Resistance is the tightness in your chest. The slog feeling. Muscling, pushing, hustling energy.  

It’s when you’re trying to bully or force yourself into doing something that you don’t really want to do — or, in other words, overriding your intuition. 

What sucks is that we’ve been trained better than a Westminster Dog Show-winning pup to believe resistance is how we’re “supposed” to feel at work. We’re taught that work is something that should feel like a struggle. That if we’re not straining or hustling we aren’t working hard enough and won’t accomplish anything. 

And we’re fine with it (even when we *know* we’re in a job that Just. Doesn’t. Work.) because we really, truly believe that, without resistance, we’d never get anything done. We’d just sit on the couch in our comfy AF Athleta leggings and eat bonbons while bingeing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. (Actually, that sounds kinda nice…)

So how do you stop welcoming resistance? And stop feeling like you’re pushing water uphill every damn day because you are so sorely lacking flow, ease, and peace at work?

Well, you’ve gotta remember that how you live your days is how you live your life and get really honest with yourself. I mean, do you really want to muscle through your entire life? Is that pushing energy, that lack of flow feeling, what you want your life to feel like?

No? Then you’ve gotta do a scan of your track record so you can prove to yourself that you HAVE accomplished meaningful things…without pain and agony. That doesn’t mean you haven’t made sacrifices or bumped up against some challenges. It means you know—in your heart or hearts—that the things you enjoy most don’t have a ton of resistance associated with them. And that, paradoxically, sometimes there’s a high degree of challenge but low resistance. Your job is recognizing the things you look forward to, crave, and lean into. 

That distinction – between welcome challenge (the kind that feels exciting and motivating) and pushing through resistance (the kind that feels like it sucks your energy) is important. (We talk a lot about energy management here!) And it’s subtle AF. The bottom line is, if you walk away from the day feeling totally drained (and maybe even a little bummed out), you’re probably pushing up against resistance and forcing things.  

How can you create a career that uses more intuition, less resistance?

The number one recommendation Nicki offers for an intuition-led career is this: you have to accept yourself. Who you are. What you’re naturally led to. And what you love.

And you have to stop trying to force yourself to be someone else.  

Once you accept your intuitive nudges (as a unicorn, an eagle, or just a human) and start choosing to go with the flow, it will make it far easier to start to discover your own feel-good career.  

Want to find out more about the kind of work that truly energizes you, lights you up, and that you move towards without that pesky resistance? Click here to learn how to map your energy at work. 

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

SHOW NOTES:

• Read more about Career coach Nikki Dunnavant
• Follow Nicki on Instagram at @NickiDunnavant
• Episode 23: How to use your intuition to create a successful career strategy with Nicki Dunnavant
• Email Lisa at Lisa@GetCareerClarity.com
• Career Clarity LIVE
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

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