Choosing your career
Have you discovered your purpose in life yet?
Don’t worry if you haven't—most people have a hard time pinpointing the precise things that they want to get out of life.
Follow these simple steps to help you get started.
Understanding more about me following these easy steps.
Task 1
Step one: Get clear about me!
Talent- What are your abilities, skills, character traits or qualities?
What you do best includes your hard skills and soft skills. These should be tasks or roles that come easily to you and have been pointed out to you by others.
Examples of talent could include:
Communicating
Writing
Public Speaking
Designing
Critical
Thinking Now’s not the time to be humble—it’s time to take pride in what you do best.
Define your life roles. You live your life in terms of roles – in the sense of authentic parts you have chosen to fill. You may have roles in work, in the family, in the community, and in other areas of your life. These roles become a natural framework to give order to what you want to do and to be.
Examples:
Wife/Mother, Manager-New Products, Manager-Research, Manager-Staff Development, United Way Chairperson, Friend
Husband/Father, Salesman-Prospects, Salesman – Financing/Administration, March of Dimes Regional Director, Friend
Passion - what makes you tick? Career Fulfilment
When you do work you’re passionate about, you’ll be excited to go to work and feel fulfilled in your career. It’s important to note that your talent is often related to your passion. However, being good at something doesn’t always mean you’re passionate about it.
Here are some indicators that it's a passion:
Before you even begin, you’ll look forward to it. In the middle of it, you’ll feel exhilarated. And when you finish, you’ll feel proud of whatever you created or produced.
Time will fly by when you’re engaged in it.
You won’t mind “suffering” for it. You’ll work hard for it, do whatever it takes to accomplish the task, and stay with it for the long run.
Source: Ken Coleman Career Coach
Please click the link to watch more on Ken Coleman.
Mission - what results matter?
It’s important to know what contribution you want to make in this world—the results that matter to you. This is your mission, and it's the driving force that propels you forward. To determine your mission, ask these questions:
Who are the people I want to help?
What problem do they have?
What is the solution to their problem that fires me up?
Who is my influential person in life? (This can be a teacher, parent or guardian, a coach, a friend or work colleague. Ask yourself who has shown me I can be the best I can be? Who has inspired me to do more, challenge myself or make the right decision.)
With that, what qualities do they have that I want or qualities that have shone in me because of them?
Remember: You can create your career mission statement in a range of ways.
If you want to write it down, create a mood board or draw a picture. This is about seeing where you are at, where you want to be and how you are going to get there.
Take out the how and what specifically, this is more about discovering purpose, value and mission.
Step two: Clarify & Verify
Once you have considered answers in step two, this is your next step.
Brainstorming and research (Here you need to take some time to research your options you have highlighted above. If you have considered a job or goal then you can refine it here. If you like the idea of a sector then again research further here. If you have an area of interest like eg helping the community you can look at this in this section too.
Refine your plan and research
Look at the following questions:
What would it take to get there (here you need to consider entry requirements and experience)
How much will it cost?
Do you have the right means to be successful?
Are there jobs available for me to apply to once I have the right qualifications (Understanding the labour market is vital at this point. Why train if there are no jobs!)
Who?
Who do you want to help/support?
Who will benefit from this community/self?
Why?
Why do you want to achieve this?
Why will it matter?
When?
By when?
How?
How will you get there?
What?
What goals, aspirations, interests are you looking to increase?
What do you want to achieve?
What skills do you already have?
What do you enjoy now?
What are the jobs available now?
Task 2
Step 1:
Watch the video below to help guide you with this technique.
Try asking yourself these questions which can support self awareness:
*What skills do you have or want to use?
*What do you want to get out the job?
*What working environment do you want to be in?
