对自己现在的工作没什么感觉？那么对上一份工作有感觉吗？你是否厌倦了每隔几年就问自己“接下来怎么办？”

詹妮·布莱克想帮助大家找到一个长期有效的答案。由于对自己的职业生涯不满意，她在2011年辞去谷歌公司一份优渥的工作，然后写了一本书，并开启了自己的咨询事业。

布莱克选择了迎接改变，而不是在职业道路上停滞不前。这给了她灵感，促使她写出了最新作品《轴点：只有下一步才要紧》（Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One）。

布莱克把职业轴点定义为“对有效的东西加大投入，以便有目的地转向一个新的相关方向”。从这个角度来说，确立轴点就是“一个有目的性，并且系统地灵活把握职业发展变化的过程”。

求职网站Monster最近和布莱克探讨了人们怎样才能借助她的轴点理论来摆脱职业停滞期并更好地适应变化——无论他们的年龄、职业阶段以及经济情况如何。

问：你的网站上说美国人平均每份工作只会干4-5年，而且在这段时间里，人们的工作性质也会发生巨变。考虑到这样的变化，普通员工要怎样做才更有可能获得一个圆满且成功的职业生涯呢？

答：这本书的要点围绕一个名叫“轴点理论”的进程展开，它分为四步：播种、审视、试行和起步。无论是自由职业者还是在公司给别人打工，有一件事大家都能做，那就是看看哪些东西真正适合你，看看自己的优势，最喜欢干什么，对什么有兴趣，以及今后几年学习哪些技能会让你真的感到兴奋。我把它称为“播种”阶段。

设立一个为期一年的愿景。我觉得，“你认为五年后自己会怎样”这类问题完全不着边际，因为没有人真的有答案。但一年后你把工作干的很成功会是怎样的情景呢？

问：我们每年都应该寻找轴点吗？

答：不是的，这并不是说我们要不断地确立重大的职业轴点，当然不是这个意思。你甚至可以为同一份工作确立轴点。轴点更多的是一种思维模式。比如说，想一想“哪些东西管用？接下来我想做什么，我怎样才能通过一些小试验来达到目的？”

这种小试验也是轴点理论的一个重要组成部分。你可以就职业发展做一些小试点，以便测试一个新的方向，而且不会感到要一下子向上猛蹬几步的压力。

问：有没有一些普遍存在的信号可以告诉你到了确立轴点的恰当时间了？

答：在某些情况下，轴点会主动找上门来。人们会遭遇裁员、公司重组、调换团队或者失去大客户等情况。至于主动确立轴点，有几种方法可以让你知道自己正站在这个点上。

人们只需要看看哪些起作用，看看下一步是什么，目的就是要采取行动。就像每年都要练习一次一样，他们要问：“好的，接下来这几年什么东西会让我最激动？”这里不存在任何诱因，轴点思维就是一项常规练习。

此外，有时候我们会遇到意想不到的轴点。突然之间，我们觉得非常无聊或者“鸭梨山大”。这些都是实实在在的征兆，表明确立轴点的时间到了。有时我们会忽略这些迹象，或者没有积极地反思现状。这时候，轴点就会不期而至，那种感觉就像遭遇危机一样。

问：恐惧显然是阻止人们确立轴点的一大障碍。我们应该怎样面对这种恐惧，让它不再成为拦路虎？

答：一个办法是不要把这样的恐惧当成个人问题。要意识到职业道路上的变化会威胁到我们最基本的需求，比如衣、食和住。当我们考虑改变职业发展路径时会感到害怕，因为我们的生计遇到了风险。

感到害怕也没什么大不了的。它实际上表明你在做一些让你兴奋的事，而且你正在做出改变。变化往往会带来恐惧。迈出的步子要小，保证它在你的“伸展区”里，而不是你的“恐慌区”。

在这本书里，我提出了“风险强度表”的概念，也就是人们内心对风险的感觉。有些人现在待在舒适区里，一切安好。很快，你就会进入停滞区。你会感到非常无聊，而且准备好要做出改变了。对确立轴点的人来说，他们的甜点在伸展区里，这个区域让他们觉得有挑战性、有参与感而且心情激动。如果你觉得自己进入了恐慌区，也就是被害怕情绪所困，无法采取行动时，你就会知道自己这一步迈的过于突兀，相对于你目前的位置来说转向过大。出现这种情况时，就要再选择一个跨度较小的行动。

问：好的，让我们假设万事俱备，然后你按照此前的计划改变了职业发展路径，结果摔了个嘴啃泥。那么接下来怎么办？

答：你采取任何行动时都要知道哪些东西管用，哪些不管用以及接下来你想做哪些试验。只要能保持这种不断学习的思维模式，并且问“我从中能学到什么？”，你就可以把轴点理论用于“失败”。也就是说，对于失败，你可以说：“好吧，这里面有哪些东西确实有用呢？哪些不管用呢？哪些是我想更多地去做的呢？我可以进行怎样的调整呢？”

很多时候，我发现轴点不起作用的原因是相对于他们现有的实力、兴趣、经验甚至目标来说，人们想要转的弯太急。通常，不管用的轴点意味着问题要归咎于这些核心元素中的一些。

一般来说，要通过这样的过程养成一种习惯。每季度，或者每半年，我都会看看哪些东西最管用，接下来我想做什么，我想学习哪些技能，我想和哪些人建立联系，以及我在工作中可以进行哪些小试验。人们还可以把这些用到项目中去。这样，如果在做项目或者进行创意时卡了壳，就可以用这种办法来寻求突破，把工作推进下去。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：詹妮

Not really feeling your current job? Did you not really feel your last one, either? Are you getting tired of asking yourself, “What’s next?” every few years?

Jenny Blake wants to help you find a lasting answer. Unsatisfied in her career, she left a plumb job atGoogle in 2011 to write a book and launch her own consulting business.

By choosing to embrace change instead of staying stagnant in her career, Blake was inspired her to write her latest book, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One.

Blake defines a career pivot as “doubling down on what is working to make a purposeful shift in a new, related direction.” Pivoting, in this sense, is “an intentional, methodical process for nimbly navigating career changes.”

Monster recently spoke with Blake about how everyone—regardless of age, career stage or bank account balance—can use her pivot method to get unstuck from a career plateau and get better at adapting to change.

Q. Your website states that the average employee tenure in America is just four to five years, and even those roles tend to change dramatically within that time. With all that change in mind, what can the everyday employee do to increase their chances of having a fulfilling, successful career?

A. The crux of the book is centered around a four-stage process [plant, scan, pilot and launch] called “the pivot method.” The one thing that anyone can do, whether they’re self-employed or working for someone else at a company, is look at what’s really working [for you], look at your strengths, what you most enjoy, what you’re interested in, what skills you would be really excited to learn in the coming years. That’s what I call the “plant” stage.

Set a vision for one year from now. I think the question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” is totally obsolete because none of us can really know. But what does success look like in your role a year from now?

Q. We should be looking to pivot every year?

A. No, this doesn’t mean that we always have to be making dramatic career pivots all the time. It’s certainly not about that. You can even pivot within your role. Pivot is more of a state-of-mind to say, “What’s working? What do I want to do next and how can I run small experiments to get there?”

That small experiment piece is a really big part of the method, as well. You can run little career pilots to test a new direction without feeling the pressure to have to move up some giant rung on the ladder in one fell swoop.

Q. What are the universal signs that tell you it’s the right time to pivot?

A. In some cases, people get pivoted. They are laid off, their company reorganizes, they move teams, they lose a big client. But if it’s a proactive pivot, there are a couple ways to know when you’re at a pivot point.

One would just be looking at what’s working and what’s next just for the sake of doing it. Like an annual exercise to say, “OK what am I most excited about in the coming years?” It’s not instigated by anything, and that’s where the pivot mindset is a regular practice.

Barring that, sometimes we hit a pivot point we don’t really see coming. All of a sudden, we feel really bored or stressed. Those are physical signs that it’s time to pivot. Sometimes when we ignore them or we don’t proactively reflect on how things are going, we hit these pivot points almost by surprise, and that’s when they feel like a crisis.

Q. Fear is obviously a major roadblock that keeps people from pivoting. How should we confront this fear so that it doesn’t stand in our way?

A. One thing is not to take that fear personally. Recognize that career changes will threaten what seems like our most fundamental needs: food, clothing, shelter. When we think about a career change, it’s scary because our livelihood is at stake.

If you have fear, that’s OK. That’s actually a sign that you’re doing something exciting and you’re making a change. Change tends to incite fear. Look to take small next steps that are within your stretch zone, not your panic zone.

In the book, I share this notion of a “risk-o-meter,” your inner risk temperature. Some people are currently in their comfort zone, everything’s fine. When you hit a plateau, you go into that stagnation zone. You’re really bored and ready for a change. The sweet spot for pivoters is in their stretch zone, where they’re feeling challenged, engaged and excited. You’ll know if you’re trying to make a move that’s too sharp, too big of a turn from where you are now, if you feel like you’re in your panic zone, which is debilitating fear that prevents you from taking action. If that’s the case, look for a smaller next step instead.

Q. OK, so let’s say all the pieces are in place, and you make that career change you’ve been planning for…and you wind up falling on your face. What is the next step?

A. Any next move is going to be informative about what works, what doesn’t work and what next experiments you want to try. As long as someone can keep that learning mindset and say, “What can I learn from this?”, you can then apply the pivot method to a “failure.” So of the failure, you can say, “Well, what did work within this? What didn’t? What would I want to do more of? How can I adjust this?”

A lot of times when I’ve seen pivots not work, it’s because the person tried to turn too sharply from their current base of strengths, interests, experience and even what they wanted. Usually a pivot that doesn’t seem to work means going back to some of those core elements.

Make a habit out of the process, in general. Every quarter, or every six months, I look at what’s working best, what I want to do next, what skills I want to develop, who I want to connect with and what small experiments I can run in my business. That’s something people can also apply within projects, so if you get stuck on a project or a creative pursuit, it’s a method to get unstuck and keep things moving.