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What Do I Actually Want Next? Julian Lighton on Designing a Career with Intention, Clarity, and the Courage to Begin
There is a question most high-achieving professionals quietly avoid. Not because they are lazy, or lost, but because it is the most honest and demanding question of all. What do I actually want next?
In this rich conversation on BizBlend, Silicon Valley executive coach and author Julian Lighton sits down with Sana to talk about why knowing what you want is the single most powerful thing you can do for your career, how confusion is a deeply human experience rooted in our neuroscience rather than a personal failing, and why clarity is not a destination but a practice. If you are somewhere in the middle of your career and wondering what the next chapter looks like, this one will give you a real framework and the permission to start.
About the Guest:
Julian Lighton is one of Silicon Valley's leading executive coaches, board advisors, and strategists. He spent more than 30 years as a Chief Strategy Officer at four billion-dollar public companies, a partner at McKinsey, and a senior leader at Hitachi and Cisco. He holds degrees from Oxford University and Harvard's Kennedy School, and is one of only 400 coaches worldwide recognised as a senior practitioner by both the ICF and EMCC. His new book, Navigating Your Next: Discover the Career You Want and the Path to Get There (Forbes Advantage Books), is now available.
Key Takeaways:
- The single most powerful career question is: what do I want? Not what am I good at, not what pays well, but what do I actually want. Every other question follows from this one.
- What you want changes across life stages. Early career is about competence. Mid-career is about desire and focus. Later career becomes a quest for meaning. Understanding which stage you are in changes what question you need to ask next.
- There is a difference between progression and progress. Progression is the external destination: the title, the salary, the role. Progress is the mastery journey: building identity, confidence, and a brand that means something. Chasing only progression often leads to that quiet feeling of emptiness at the summit.
- Confusion is not weakness. Human beings are neurologically wired for pattern recognition. When that fails, we become stuck. Understanding this takes the shame out of feeling lost and makes getting unstuck a practical rather than a personal challenge.
- Julian's four-lens framework helps move from possible to probable to desired: competency (what am I good at), context (where and with whom do I want to work), culture and values (who are my people), and mindset (what motivates me and how far do I want to go).
- Motivation gets you started. Discipline keeps you moving. The gap between being stuck and taking action is often just three to five seconds and the decision to ignore the inner critic and begin anyway.
Connect With Julian Lighton:
Website: www.julianlighton.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/julianlighton1
Book (US, available now): Navigating Your Next on Amazon US
Book (UK, 11 June 2026): Navigating Your Next on Amazon UK
Episode Chapters:
[00:00] The Question That Won't Go Away — Opening reflection for high achievers who feel something is off
[02:30] Welcome to BizBlend — Host Sana introduces Julian Lighton
[05:30] Why Knowing What You Want Is the Key to Everything — What three decades of coaching revealed
[08:00] Career Clarity by Life Stage — What you are really seeking in your 20s, 30s, and 40s [12:00] Progression vs. Progress — Why chasing destinations misses the point
[14:00] When Confusion Is a Brain Problem, Not a You Problem — The neuroscience of being stuck
[18:00] The Four-Lens Framework — Competency, context, culture and values, mindset
[23:00] What Happens After Clarity — Doubt, discipline, and the power of just beginning
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