Most people grow up making a choice of their professional life based on a couple of things:
1. What your parents instilled in you based on their own passions.The deep desire of parents gets loaded onto kids. Kids absorb unrealized passions of parents earlier then they get a chance to understand their own. Generation after generation we make unhappy people. The cycle goes on. (Please don’t go back home now and blame your mom and dad. I guarantee they are unaware. Move on with your own life, blaming never helps with anything).
2. What society told you is a cool thing to do in the current time.
In the 1990s the best thing was to be a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant. Those who went after these professions were guaranteed to have a job. Societies produced a lot of lawyers, doctors, and accountants (nothing wrong with these professions!), but not necessarily happy people!
The problem is:Not much space left for true desires or true personal talent – we are too busy living our lives!
Well, of course, some people are lucky to know their vocation and passion. Some super lucky people are not only aware of their passion, but have chances and resources to pursue it, and, pursue it. I am talking to those of you who are not aware of what your passion may be.
Are you struggling to figure it out or never entered the quest of finding your gifts?
The trick is – when you develop your unique talent, it is always so special that YOU become YOUR workplace.
Pursuing your true potential is a form of insurance from unemployment.
There is nobody else like you, never were and never will be! You are unique, aren’t you curious what’s your talent?
The current state of society and knowledge creates a multitude of opportunities to pursue our talents. We have significantly easier and faster access to knowledge and education than earlier in history. There are also more opportunities to build up hobbies and eventually turn them into full-time careers.
My point here is: start with the first step – find out what is that you want and are gifted to do. Everybody is born with an innate talent or a gift; it is time to go find it!
I guarantee that we would see significantly fewer depressions, addictions, and diseases if, as a society, we would have a culture of discovering the innate talent of each individual and helping developing it.
I understand that there are societal and market needs for certain professions, but most importantly we need happy human beings in the first place, rather than just doctors, programmers, or cooks. Regardless of what your profession is, if you are not happy in it, you spread the unhappiness.
My challenge to you (assuming you are somebody who is not sure about your talent or true passion) is to become very curious and seek it. Because it is there, I guarantee! Life will be so much more interesting and joyful when you discover your passion!
Action plan:
1. Trial
Pursue your interests; try those things that you have been thinking about. It may be pottery, robotics, knitting, coding, trading, astrology, writing, or anything else. If you ever had a thought ‘it would be really interesting to do [fill the blank]' – then this is what you need to do. Listen to your feelings while you do it, check in with yourself on how you feel in the process of it. Listen to what resonates with you, if it does not resonate – drop it and move on.
2. Psychological assessments
There are a multitude of tests and assessments. Do your research and try it. What you buy is not a report, but an interpretation of it. Find out – who and how will deliver an interpretation of your personality; communicate beforehand – what is that you are trying to understand from this exercise; ask for an opportunity to come back later with questions. And: put that information into action!
3. Coaching
Work with a professional coach to dig into your aspirations, motivation, interests, and values. This is very rewarding work as it helps you to get to know yourself better and can shed light on your limiting beliefs and internal sabotage. It can also resolve a lot of additional things on the way.
4. Trainings and group work
This is similar to working with a coach one-on-one, but in a group setting. There you perform practices and excursuses together with others and grow through mutual support and effort. The downside of trainings is that they cannot be individually geared towards you like the one-on-one work. The additional benefit though is that you can make a ton of friends.
Whatever you choose to do my suggestion is to actually DO something!
My desire for people is to have happier lives: career and professional interests are a third of our time spending or even more and it has got to be happy and joyful.
Wishing you the best of YOU and the best of your career!