Two top career planning skills

?People often ask me what career planning I do for myself.
It could of course be the shoemaker with no shoes!

However I do use most of the techniques I espouse to others. A couple are particularly useful.
I think these might well be called "advanced" level career planning - not to blow my own trumpet you understand - but because these are techniques that do not always sit comfortably with those just joining a career guidance programme and undergoing perhaps what might be the first in depth career guidance they have ever had.

1 The first technique is to simply think what I want.  Ahhaaa - but that is NOT so simple if one is overwhelmed by frustration and exhaustion or if other people are muddying the waters. When I ask that question point blank 'what do you want" - I am often met with a blank look or a despairing one or the phrase "I just don't know".  This presents a minor barrier to career guidance but it can be overcome . However without addressing this issue the person is likely to want you - the career guide - to define this for them. 
RULE number one in career guidance - do not make other people's dreams and decisions for them!!!!
It is important to facilitate THEM to do this for THEMSELVES.

2 Having decided what I want more of ( or less of - but the more of is generally better in terms of motivation - ie carrot not stick ) I think creatively about all the possible ways in which that might be achieved and then I visualise how each way might end up or look like.

Sounds simple enough but if a person is anxious or even depressed or burnt out - thinking creatively might ( even for a highly creative person and not everyone is) be extremely difficulty.

This is why I don't recommend these approaches unless a person seems truly ready for them.
I would like to teach these techniques more as they are very effective. The challenge remains that in a room full of people - at any one time only a handful will be truly ready to engage with these techniques.

So - part of the career guidance process must involve a plan to get into a better place where one CAN adopt these techniques - even if only in part and occasionally to begin with.