3 Initial Steps To Find A Meaningful Career

4/19/2017

Want to change your career and don’t have a clue where to begin or what to do? You don’t have to go very far to find out. All you have to do is go within.

We’re very accustomed to look outside ourselves for advice and guidance, but if you want a positive and long lasting impact in your life, you have to go within yourself.

Don’t think about courses, training, certification or degrees to complete, don’t think about which one is the most lucrative path, and don’t focus on what career pays more money. Not yet.

Before you consider which career to start or switch to, or whether a career is profitable or not, think about you. Think about what makes you tick, what brings you alive, what could you be doing without considering time or money.

Step 1 – Get to know you

The other day I was talking to a person who was not sure what to study that could ensure him a good financial future, but for sure he knew he wanted to study something.

I asked him, what do you like to do? He said, I don’t know. I asked him, what do you enjoy doing? He said, I don’t know. I asked him, what makes you feel happy? You guessed it, he said I don’t know.

It is hard if not impossible to live a happy and fulfilled life if you don’t know yourself. How will you know if something will make you happy if you don’t know what makes you happy?

Although you might think your outside personality doesn’t know or does not remember what you like and enjoy, your subconscious does for sure. Thankfully there’s an easy way to get information from it and that is by asking.

That’s right, all you need to do is ask; it’s that simple. Before you begin asking though, you need to be quiet and silent enough to be able to listen.

Step 2 – Ask and analyze yourself

It’s very important that you learn to notice the difference between an answer from your head, that is your thoughts, and an answer from your soul. Your thought is more like a conversation you already had going on in your head and it’s very likely you remember when and what started it.

An answer from your soul is like a bubble of inspiration with a lot of information in it that you had not been thinking of. Some call it an ah-ha moment, some call it a revelation, and some others call it information given. Doesn’t matter what you call it, what matters is that you recognize the difference between the two.

Here are a few questions you can begin to ask yourself. Pay careful attention and record the answers. Whatever answer comes first to you, write it down without judging or analyzing it yet. Just do the asking first.

“I don’t know” are not good answers. You have to get quiet, silent and just wait for the answer to come. Don’t try to force it. It will come if you give it time. If it doesn’t happen right away, try again later. It will happen for sure, trust me.

What are you noticing you think mostly about?
When you talk to others, what do you find yourself talking about?
When you have free time, what do you usually find yourself doing?
What do you hear people say you’re good at?
When you see someone needing all the help they can get about anything, how do you think you can help?

After you get your answers, you can then begin analyzing them and find out the WHY of each of your answers. Not judging though, we never judge those answers.

Why do you think you usually think those things?
When you talk to others, why do you think you keep talking about that subject?
When you have free time, why do you usually do the same or similar things?
Why do you think people say you’re good at that?
When you see someone needing help, why do you think you can help that way?

If after answering these questions you notice you have no meaningful answers, it’s very likely you didn’t get your answers from your soul. Don’t get discouraged and try again and again and again.

If after answering these questions you still have “I don’t know” as answers that means you’ve been living by default. Living by default means that you’ve allowed anything and anyone to direct your life. It is justified for a child, but not so much for an adult. This means it is time to begin taking control of your life and begin making changes.

Step 3 – Identify your dreams and desires

Once you get to know yourself, what makes you feel happy and why, you’re going to combine it with your deepest desires.

Your deepest desires are those ideas you’ve had for the longest time. You don’t know where they’re coming from but for some reason it makes you feel good thinking about having them, doing them or living them.

If you don’t know what your deepest desires are, you need to do something to bring them up to the surface. Try this short visualization and answer these questions to help you.

Close your eyes and imagine you're near the end of your life, whatever age that might be. Imagine you’re looking and feeling old. Your hair is all white, your skin is all wrinkled and your body is not as agile as it once was. You’re sitting in the living room looking through the front window as you realize your time to leave this world is approaching. As you sit there reflecting back in your life answer these questions:

What do you wish you would have done when you were younger?
What is one thing you felt called to do but didn’t do it?
What is something you could have done that could have improved your life?
What is something you wish you had as the end of your life is near?
What is something you wanted to do but due to fear or insecurity you didn’t do it?
What is the strongest regret you see yourself living your last days with?

Make sure you record the answers and think about what you wrote. Most importantly, think of the things you can begin doing today that can help you get to the old you that you want to be, and to live the fulfilled life you want to live. That’s right, start living your passion today!

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” –Sydney J. Harris

As you noticed, the initial steps to a meaningful career are the steps to get to know yourself. A career is meaningful only to your standards and if there’s nothing to compare it to, then any career could be meaningful right? But we are not that way.

Each one of us is different and each one of us has different standards for this life. Once you recognize your standards for your life, it will be easier to find or create your next meaningful career. I will be writing about how to go about it in the next post.

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2 Comments

Linda Devine

4/19/2017 09:31:53 pm

Claudia, this is the best advice anyone could give or receive! I knew from the time I was 5 years old I was going to be a hairstylist. Not my mother, my father, not anyone could make me change my mind. This was my calling, and to this day, it still is. No regrets. I was very fortunate that I listened to myself. So if anyone says they wanted to be this since they were a small child, I would say do it. Don't think about the money, because if this is what you were supposed to be, the money will come. Great blog. I hope to see you soon.

Claudia LeBaron Islas

4/20/2017 12:50:51 pm

It's great to hear from you, Linda! Yes, children easily remember the plans they've set out for their life ahead and show it in their interests, unfortunately some of us forget as we grow older. But if we can remember what we were interested in when were children we should definitely explore that path. Thank you for comment. Hope to see you soon too. Take care ;)

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