Recently I was giving advice to a college student, that many will remember receiving themselves. Essentially, I explained that the key to picking an undergraduate degree is to pick one that:
a) will keep you interested enough that you will graduate
b) gives you a good number of options when you are done.
I realized that the same advice holds just as true for making a career move. When you think about places to go in your career, it is useful to think about how that experience will help build your resume.
Are you doing tasks that you are likely to complete successfully? Is the role you are taking, one that you are well suited for? Is it likely that you are going to be able to do a good job ?
In addition, you need to think about what kinds of roles you might progress to, after the current one.
Are you picking opportunities that give you more choices later or are you typecasting yourself always doing the same things? It’s not to say that you should not build depth in a specific area, but it is saying that you cannot define your career as a single step. You need to be thinking not only about your current move, but the next one as well.
Taking steps now, to have more options later, can give you that edge over time.
Meg Bear 
Meg – I definitely like your viewpoint here. I think this relates very much to the concept of looking forward and searching for learning experiences in our career and in our everyday life. I recently read a blog about the Wallenda factor that also presents as similar perspective http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/the-wallenda-factor/
@Brenda — excellent post thanks for sharing. I think there is a lot to think about when you start to get to the topic of channeling energy. Without a doubt, what you focus on has a big impact on what you achieve.