Unhappy in your job? You’re certainly not alone. But deciding what you’re going to do about it is enough to freeze many people in place, afraid to make any changes because it might be the “wrong” one.

To start with, this isn’t an attempt to inspire you to dust off the old resume and hit the pavement. If there are problems that are making you unhappy with your current job, it’s unlikely you’ll leave all of those problems behind if you’re hired by a new employer.

So think about what bothers you — and what it would take to consider the matter remedied. Stats show that only 54% of employees feel their current employer offers a bright future. But that doesn’t mean that the other 46% of employees are bailing or halfway out the door.

Is it the profession? The people you work with? The daily commute? The pay? The (unreasonable) expectations?

Once you start to pin down what bothers you about your current job, it’s easier to start researching for other possibilities. But this also can be a tough area to navigate. So what are some of the common roadblocks that keep employees from at least snooping around the job market?

• The fear of “change” outweighs their unhappiness
• There aren’t any opportnities in their field
• Don’t want to leave the friends they’ve made, and
• Fear of losing health benefits

Once you’ve defined what you don’t want and what might be holding you back, you can work on breaking free from these common apprehensions and think more clearly about the prospects of changing jobs.

One major reason people can’t get out of the starting blocks is because they aren’t able to clearly define what it is they’re looking for — the goal for where they and need to be.

In some respects, it’s a matter of answering the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Have you always wanted to be something — a veterinarian? a make-up artist? a firefighter? — but talked yourself out of it?

Begin to think of a game plan for what it would take you to reach that goal. A good way to address this is to engage in a little detective work. Ask people:

• What they like about their jobs
• To describe a typical day
• How they decided this is what they wanted to do, and
• How they put that decision into action

Two more pieces of advice: Don’t count on the newspaper classifieds or even Monster.com, Craigslist.org, etc. for your best job opportunity. Find ways to network with your peers. Talk to people who’ve done your “dream job” and ask them how they got there,

If you’re serious about finding a new pursuit but you’re still not having success, consider talking to a career counselor.

Tags: change jobs, job