One day, I got a phone call from one of my mentees. She was a young, hard-working, and ambitious professional, but she was perplexed when two exciting career opportunities knocked her door almost at the same time. One opportunity would grant her high visibility through constant exposure to upper levels of management and main decision makers in her organization, while the other one would allow her to foster her creativity and develop her problem solving skills by leading an effort to enhance complex cross-departmental processes. She was asking me: “What would you choose if you were in my shoes?”

I responded to her: “Nobody can choose for you. You must choose for yourself.”

And I added: “But, let me tell you my version of the author James Patterson’s metaphor: Imagine work is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called power, autonomy, expertise, creativity, and stability. And you are trying to keep all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to realize that some balls are made of rubber. If you drop them, they will bounce back. The other balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered… Now you are the only one who can tell which balls in your game are glass balls and which ones are rubber.”

It is important for you too, to know the “glass ball” motivators and the “rubber ball” motivators in your game. This will help you make better career decisions.

You can understand your own motivators and raise your self-awareness by taking the various mini-assessments in the book "Career Compass" at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FOPPA1K