You know what you are running away from. But what are you running to?

Sometimes, you reach such a point of frustration at work that you are so ready to run away from this “bad” situation.

You hear yourself saying more often than not (day after day / week after week):

“This is not a good situation to be in. Anyone in their right mind can put two and two together and see how bad this is.”

I see this in many conversations with candidates whose primary response to why they are looking to switch jobs is that they are very unhappy at their current company, their present role is unsatisfying and / or their manager does not set them up for success etc.

If this is happening to you, don’t overanalyze the current “bad” situation. You have already identified the unfavorable nature and made the decision to run away from it. Visualize concretely what the alternative would look like. Popular negotiating book, Getting to Yes, calls it your BATNA (best alternative to Negotiated Agreement).

What would you do if you were not doing this very thing that you are doing? It cannot be an amalgamation of all your imaginations.

It has to be a very specific, one thing that would be “better” than this particular “bad” situation you think you are in.

If you don’t have that BATNA, then develop one before you throw up your hands in exasperation in a weak moment.

This does not mean that you have to follow the BATNA by default. A BATNA will help you measure alternatives against the current “bad” the current situation. It will prevent you from blindly speculating and provide you with a realistic assessment of your options.

Creating this alternative takes time, effort and planning but without this, you will not know what do you want to run towards.