Transcript: Michael "Rudi" ...: Hello and welcome to the What's Career Got to Do With It podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you are at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. On today's episode, we will discuss an answer or many to the question, where do we go from here? Breaking through the block. Nicole Mitchell: Duh, duh, dun. Michael "Rudi" ...: Immediately just had an image of the juggernaut running through a wall. I'm the juggernaut. Ängela Bonner: And I was in football pads, just taking out the defensive lineman. Okay. Nicole Mitchell: Welcome to your career advisors. Come see us. Brian Center, bottom level. Michael "Rudi" ...: Yeah, yeah. The conversations we have, from Marvel comics to actual helpful hints, I hope. Anyway, so this question, in many ways, makes me feel stuck. I think that's this ubiquitous feeling that we have is like uh oh, here I am. I'm in this environment, and I don't know what to do. And it's beyond that of finding purpose that we've touched on. It's beyond the identifying that next step or making a pivot. It's the space before that, perhaps, where you're just stuck in a scenario, a situation. So many different things that are impacting, and you literally feel like you can't go anywhere. So for us, what is that moment? What tunes us into that? Nicole, what tunes you into that feeling of being stuck? How do you know you're there? Nicole Mitchell: I think for me it's more questions than answers, where I've gotten to a point where I'm just asking myself question after question after question. I might answer one every now and then. But definitely when I get to the point of asking more questions than being able to give more answers, I know that I'm stuck, and that it's time to lean in to my mentors, my Career Center, my community to help guide me in the next steps. Ängela Bonner: I think I'm stuck when I'm not happy, and I'm always drained. That's my telltale that is it's kind of time to have some more conversations. Michael "Rudi" ...: Yeah, I think it's weird that there's like this physiological phenomena associated with this that we actually physically don't feel like ourselves. And when we're in that place, we can't actually do the things we typically like to do, or maybe we replace the things we typically like to do with other things that are not as helpful in our lives. And I think, for me, I'm a person that's constantly moving, and I notice if I stop moving, I'm typically actually stuck, and I'm like- Nicole Mitchell: Pun intended. Michael "Rudi" ...: Yes. What do I next? And so paying attention to those physiological signs, to those racing thoughts, those questions, if there's more questions, we don't have a lot of answers, and that puts us in a place of being stuck, the environment that we're in. Those all are things that help us tune into that. So that how do we get unstuck? What exactly are we supposed to do to get out of that place? Your doctor will tell you to go exercise. And doctors are very good at that. I mean, that is fruitful advice. Ängela Bonner: It helps. Michael "Rudi" ...: John Green talks about all the time on his TikTok channel of taking another stupid walk, my stupid mental health. And yes. Ängela Bonner: Oh my. Michael "Rudi" ...: No, it's good. We need sunshine. Those things are important. But how do we get unstuck? Where do you send students, I think, for trying to avoid that? Nicole Mitchell: I think, for me, the first thing is doing a little self exploration. So there's a reason why we're stuck. We're stuck because we're ready for our next move. We're stuck because we don't have enough information to continue in the space that we're in. So doing a little self eval, and that could potentially be in the form of assessments. A
