subject: How To Choose A Career: Know What You Like And Live It [print this page] My dog Oscar knows what he likes and he love to live it.
When he gets to do his favorite things like getting a treat, going for a ride, walking in the park or playing with his best dog buddy Benji -- he wags his tail like crazy and acts like he just won the lottery!
What would our lives be like if we got to do our favorite things every day?
What if our work was such a good match to what we like and care about that we woke up eager and couldnt wait to go to work?
I believe that its possible, but theres one very simple (but big thing) that gets in the way, its what hurts us as we try to figure out how to choose a career: we get confused about what we like.
Heres what I mean
When Oscar is doing one of his favorite things: sniffing dog buddy Benji as they chase each other like Tasmanian devils, we dog parents stand around and talk.
Right now most of the conversation is about how to choose a career for Karen, the youngest human in the family.
She followed her dad, a doctor, into the medical field getting a degree in physical therapy. But after doing the job for awhile she decided she hates it. She tried sales, and decided she hates that too. Now shes thinking about graduate school.
Dads frustrated and everyones wringing their hands about what Karens going to do next except Benji of course, hes just being a dog and playing!
Karens trying to figure how to choose a career and how to know what she likes.
My friend Kim is going through the same thing. Kims twice Karens age, has a graduate degree, is respected in her field, has a good job that pays well. But Kims bored, unhappy and says she feels unfilled by her work.
Kims trying to figure how to choose a career, and how to know what she likes.
It is not uncommon for people to get a degree or work in a field that that dont like as they try to figure out how to choose a career. Why?
The reason: We make career decisions based on outside factors; we try to decide how to choose a career based on what others have done.
Dads a doctor I should be in the medical field.
Everyone in my family has a graduate degree. I should too.
The report in Parade Magazine says that this career makes people happy and its one of the hottest jobs in the next 10 years, I should do that
Some of this information can be good to think about, but focusing on outside factors mostly is not in our best interest. Thats because the same career that thrills one person, can tear another person apart.
As we try to morph and contort our style and interests to fit a position is not a good match to the things we naturally care about and like to do, were miserable.
How can we break this tendency of focusing outside of ourselves? How do we choose a career?
First: decide that it is not only okay, but its a good thing to know what you like and live it.
Some might ask, isn't it selfish of me to focus on what I like?
I say not at all.
Your interests were put into you by Source and have been being shaped by you since the day you were born. When you focus on and follow the scent of what you like, as you start to dig deeper into those things - you get insights like found treasure when Oscar finds a long-ago-buried bone in the yard. Insights into the special and unique talents and gifts you bring to the world.
As you decide that the best path for how to choose a career is to find a career that matches what you like and care about, you are naturally happier every day, you positively influence and uplift everyone you meet.
Don't ignore your interests, embrace them. Create a new reference in your mind that it is not only okay, but its a good thing to know what you like and live it.
Second: pay attention to what brings you joy and do these things as often as possible.
I say pay attention because as we evolve and grow, what we enjoy evolves and grows. Kim is a good example of someone who accidentally stopped paying attention.
She didnt make adjustments to her career along the way, and today is in a bit of a crisis mode about her work as she tries to figure out how to find a career that works for her today.
One tool thats helped me pay attention, and be more acutely tuned into what I like, is the Workplace Motivators assessment.
It measures your top two passions in a customized 20+ page report. Its helped me make course-corrections and better decisions about my career and how I spend my time.
As a result I am experiencing less stress and more joy. Now thats how to find a career!
First, decide that its okay and good to know what you like and live it. Second, pay attention to what brings you joy and do those things as often as possible.
Do you know what you like and are you living it?
When we decide that how to find a career is best done by building our life choices around what we like, we wag our tails a lot and we spread joy everywhere we go.
The key to how to find a career, is the lesson my dog Oscar teaches me every day: Know what you like and live it.
