Exponentially Increase Your Career Options With This Simple Improv Trick
When it comes to thinking big about career options, our brains love to make assumptions that keep us playing small. Yet there’s a simple way to increase our career options.
Most “rational” assumptions attempt to convince us why we can’t have what we want: We’d have to go back to school. We’d be forced to take a step back in our career. We’d need to invest a huge amount of time and/or money.
While those assumptions might feel very true, they are not objective truth.
Either/or thinking is one of the most common limiting beliefs and a serious roadblock to designing a career with purpose.
Here are just a few examples I hear frequently:
I can do something creative or I can make money
I can make a real impact at work or I can have a life
I get to work from home three days a week, and I’d hate to give that up
Either/or thinking pits your career goals against one another, leaving you to make impossible and unnecessary choices.
Instead of “Either, or...” shift to “Yes, and...” and increase your career options exponentially.
Want To Increase Your Career Options?
Take a Yes, and... Approach to Your Career
Yes, and... is an improvisational comedy technique that encourages participants to accept a premise as true without question or judgment.
Let’s say an improv scene starts with someone saying, “It’s so nice to finally meet you!” You wouldn’t respond with, “What do you mean? We’ve known each other for years!” That negates their entire set-up and stops creativity in its tracks.
By responding with, “Yeah, who would’ve thought we’d first meet in prison?!” you validate their premise and take it a giant step further.
“Yes” is about fully accepting the initial idea. “And” adds new information to expand on it.
When applied to your career, Yes, and... helps you fully explore an idea without limitation—before you talk yourself out of it:
How can I keep the variety of my current role and ADD a 6-hour work day AND a %10 pay rise?
How can I use my legal skills without having to go to court every day?
Where can I find the excitement of a start-up within a more-established organization?
And just like improv, your career options escalate quickly.
Yes, and... challenges you to take your most important career goal as a given, then add another goal and another after that, to push beyond what's immediately available to what's ultimately possible.
You start seeing creative ways to combine your skills, values, and interests rather than deciding which ones you have to give up.
Instead of just the obvious black and white career options, you begin to see all the shades of gray.
There’s Always a Way In
I have witnessed so many clever real-life career mash-ups that began with a simple Yes, And… Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
Be creative and make money: Work in the Art Department of an established company or take a Corporate Communications role in a high-paying industry. Start a business where you set your prices!
Combine your passions with your skills: Meld your interests in Travel and Nutrition with your Personal Finance knowledge. Obsessed with movies? Use your Project Management skills to break into the Film and Television industry.
Serve multiple goals: Volunteer or join the board of an organization you care about to make an impact and build relationships and build a particular skill and get exposure to other opportunities at that organization and . . .
Find the Yin and Yang: Explore how seemingly disparate goals can work in harmony. For example, couple your desire to build something new with your need for stability by looking for opportunities to reengineer or build out new functions within established companies.
Wear multiple hats: Want variety and have a broad skill set? There are plenty of roles that allow you to wear many hats (Chiefs of Staff, COOs, and CAOs are just some examples). Roles that require you to coordinate across departments and organizations (e.g., Product Management) can also combine a number of different skill sets, functions, and areas of expertise.
Learn something new and get paid: Find a company that will pay for your education or apply your already-proven skill set to a new subject matter or industry you can learn on the job.
This is just the tip o’ the iceberg. There are so many ways to increase your career options in a way that’s tailor-made for you.
Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too
When I first became a career coach, I researched coaching roles within larger organizations so I could do the work I love and have a regular paycheck.
A friend and former colleague unexpectedly offered me a full-time coaching job at a prestigious company.
I shared my counter offer: more money, fewer hours, and the ability to continue building my own coaching business on the side.
He laughed and said, “You want to have your cake and eat it, too.”
I said, “Of course! Isn’t that what we all want?”
He disagreed, and the negotiation went no further.
This is what happens when both parties don’t agree to play the Yes, and… game. That’s okay. It wasn’t the right fit for either of us.
The realization that many people don’t operate with a Yes, and… mentality was a big motivator for me to take the leap to start my own business. I was sick of settling in my own life and wanted to show others how to have their cake and eat it, too.
I also kept telling people what I wanted and ultimately found the right business partner who was willing to play Yes, and... with me. We stated outright that it was not a question of if we'd work together but how, and kept talking until we figured out an agreement that worked for both of us.
This is my approach for pretty much everything in career and life: Decide what you want + Tell everyone about it + Keep talking (and listening) until the solution emerges.
Embrace the “No”
Just because you’re saying “yes,” doesn’t mean people won’t say “no.”
But that doesn’t mean you should stop playing. Take it as a clear sign that the opportunity is no longer worth your time and energy, and refocus on the ones that are!
When you encounter a "no," don't sweat it. Keep it moving until you get a "yes, and..."
It's completely bonkers (technical career coach terminology) that we're so used to settling that we start to feel unworthy, guilty, or even greedy for asking for what we want and need.
Don’t limit your career options before you even start.
Repeat after me: It is totally reasonable to make money, love what I do, and have a life outside of work. I deserve to have the life and career I want.
Increase Your Career Options With Yes, And…
You can always say "no" when it’s time to make an actual decision.
In the beginning, give yourself the gift of exploration without restriction or judgment.
Once you determine what you really want in your career, there are so many ways to go after it.
No career is perfect, but that doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice the things that are most important.
Don’t get trapped in binary thinking. Don't give away your cake!
Play Yes, and… until you find a career option that works for you.
If you’re ready to push beyond what’s immediately available and explore what’s possible, let’s talk. We’ll lay out the roadmap to increase your career options that tick the right boxes.
Ready for a career that matches who you are?
Grab the free guide: 4 Steps to Take Back Your Life and Design a Career with Purpose
Learn how to work through the right options for you and find opportunities you didn't even know were possible.
Author Bio:
Before becoming a coach, Caroline worked in management consulting and financial services. She's made it her mission to help people grow, contribute, and get wherever they want to go.
She’s also a tennis fanatic, aspiring Minimalist, FIRE (Financial Independence and Retire Early) enthusiast, and Aloha Spirit seeker 🤙. She loves to share stories from her unconventional life and career focused on freedom, creativity, fun, health, family, and community. If she can do it, you can, too.
The life and career you want is possible once you have the roadmap. Take the first step by downloading your free guide: 4 Steps To Take Back Your Life and Design a Career With Purpose.
