What Happened When I Challenged Myself to Take One Bold Career Move Every Day
I made a personal commitment that I would intentionally put myself out there at every opportunity. Even when, and especially when, it made me nervous. It’s the coaching I give to others in 1:1 meetings, in coffee conversations, and in my writing. I decided I needed to thoughtfully model my own advice. There’s something powerful to boldly asking for what you dream about and being prepared for opportunities that come your way.
Here is what it looked like to take one bold career move every day:
Day 1: A woman at the train station complimented me on my dress. We talked for a few minutes and exchanged cards. In my follow up email, I suggested it would be fun to continue the conversation over coffee at some point.
The result: She responded with an invitation to her club for breakfast, and we shared a meaningful dialogue about career choices, navigating office politics, working motherhood, and maintaining friendships as adults.
Day 3: After I arrived at work one morning, our CEO asked me to staff an unexpected meeting out of state on behalf of the organization. I made a few calls and by lunchtime was on my way.
The result: I was able to demonstrate to the CEO that I can handle important projects. While at the meeting, I met other business leaders from my community, and developed relationships that would be important to our organization’s work back home.
Day 5: Months earlier, a working mom Instagram account invited followers to host an Instagram takeover. I dug out the invitation I had saved and responded to express my interest.
The result: The next week I shared a view of a day in my life with thousands of working parents and offered tips from my own experiences.
Day 6: I reached out to a respected leader whom I didn’t know to ask for help on a project.
The result: She said yes, and ended up providing mentoring during our conversation, too.
Day 7: A women’s professional organization that I belong to advertised for experts for a Twitter chat, so I filled out an application.
The result: They selected me to share insights on leadership, career, and mentoring.
Day 10: I read an article in Harvard Business Review that deeply resonated with me and reached out to the author to say thank you. After a brief email exchange, I invited her to meet.
The result: During coffee, we made plans to collaborate on a future project.
Day 12: I spoke up in a meeting with hundreds of people to offer feedback on a project being rolled out to the entire organization.
The result: I contributed my perspective to the new initiative. A few days later, I ran into the CEO, and she commented how much she liked the idea I shared.
Each of these moves paid off in advancing my career—by establishing or strengthening relationships, taking on new projects, or allowing me to serve others in a meaningful way.
In all of these experiences, something happened around me that I could have appreciated for a moment and forgotten about or ignored completely. I chose to give these things my attention. Then I put in the work and followed through. When you intentionally make a bold career move and commit the effort to make it happen, you’ll see results. This doesn’t mean things always go as planned or as hoped, but it will give you the courage to keep trying new things until they turn out even better than you expected.
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