Discover Your Dream Job - Part 3

Forming A Vision

It is extremely important to know where you are going in life.

In this section, I’ll give you some exercises that will help you enhance your career choices and explore other options. My aim is to help you form a career vision and determine your vision of an ideal day at work!

Forming a vision is an engaging and an introspective exercise. However, it can be optimally formed if you rid yourself of any “life conditioning” that you have had in the past.

You need to unlearn it all and do this exercise with a blank fresh mind. This way you can keep biases and prejudices at bay and look at the options available to you in a totally different light.

Don’t think about the advice and suggestions given to you by your family and friends. This is all about exploring what you want and where you see yourself in the future.  It’s all about choices.

Don’t get bogged down by the “good intentions” of your parents to find a respectable career that they did not have.

This is the chance for YOU to create the dream job that YOU always wanted!

To  kick start the process, do the exercise below and you’ll be on your way to a career you not only enjoy but are good at too!

Dream Job Discovery Exercises

The following exercises will help you to determine your likes and dislikes as well as your career aspirations.

Please take your time in answering the questions.

As you answer the questions, you will start to formulate some conclusions as to what is “right” and what is “wrong” in a career for you.

Q

LIFESTYLE

• Identify the key characteristics of your ideal lifestyle - what would they be?

i.e. 2 hours quality time with the kids every night, earn $100,000/year, less than 30 minute travel time to work, 2 holidays per year, work in a team, etc.

• Does/will your current career allow you to achieve your ideal lifestyle?

Q

LIKES/DISLIKES

• What are your likes and dislikes at work? Make 2 lists below.

• What activities do you enjoy?

• Which activities would you rather avoid?

• Does your current job have more likes or dislikes?

Q

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• Put yourself in the shoes of a potential employer.

• What are your key strengths and weaknesses?

• Think experience, qualifications, training, ability, attitude and knowledge.

Q

PERSONALITY

• Does your current career fit with your personality type? Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

• Do you like to learn by doing or by thinking and reflecting?

• Do you like variety and changes to the work that you complete or do you like routine and certainty?

Q

Ideal Day at Work

• Describe in as much detail your ideal day at work - what sort of things would you be doing?
• If you’re having problems answering this describe the worst day at work possible.   Imagine the worst job you can possibly imagine in the worst environment and with the nastiest people as your boss and co-workers.  Describe it in vivid detail.Once you’re done, your dream job should contain the opposites of what you described.

Q

Ideal Career - Characteristics

• Based on all that you have written  so far, determine the ideal career for you.

• Imagine you are a kid again, what would you like to be when you grow up?

Remember, you’re not locked into any particular career path.  You could decide to be an organic farmer for a few years then decide you’d like to be a travel writer.  It‘s ok.  Whatever you want is great.  Maybe you want to pursue freelance web design at the same time you sell fine furniture that you created in your workshop.

Anything goes.  It’s a new world and the old rules have changed.  Basically there are no rules.  You decide.  The opportunities are limitless.

Discover Your Dream Job - Part 2

What is Success?

Everyone in life wants to be a success.

Success is a state of mind. You can because you think you can!

Different people perceive success differently at different points in their lives. When you are younger you identify success with a high flying career and oodles of disposable income. On the flipside, as you grow older you are more susceptible to fall prey to the fallacy of success being proportional to your social standing.

Whatever your definition is, it sure is susceptible to change and there’s always room for improvement.

One thing that’s common among most people is that they want to be successful and conforms to the fact that there’s nothing so fulfilling in life!

Just take time out and think what success actually means to you.

Jot down your definition of success.

Think hard and think clear. Make sure you are specific.

Don’t keep reading this until you have done it.

If you haven’t filled defined what success is to you, do it now! Don’t cheat yourself!

A number of factors will influence your definition of success.
How is your definition of success formed?

Your upbringing Your beliefs Your traits Your attitude Your peers Society The peaks and valleys you have been through in life

Subconsciously you have encompassed all of the above factors while putting down what success means to you.

All of the above factors will contribute as to what success means to you.

Success is not necessarily achieving every goal you set, but how enriched you came out striving to achieve it. Don’t ignore your mistakes; take them in stride because these are nothing but valuable life lessons.

There is a myth that states that people are born winners or born losers.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There are techniques, methods and ways of behaving that will enable and help you to succeed. Certain dormant attributes can determine whether you will succeed or not. These are not attributes you need to develop; we all have them. All you need is a little clarity of thought and the revelations will come!

You owe it to yourself to get the most out of your life.

The worst thing that you can do is to look back in 40 or 50 years time and say, “I wish I had done this” or “I wish I had done that”

So don’t shy away from treading where your heart is set!

Making sure, you are in the right career will solve half of your life’s problems.

If you feel life hasn’t been too fair with you, don’t lose hope it’s never too late to make a to get your second wind in the marathon called life.  You just need a little guidance and you’ve come to the right place!

Coming up in Part 3 - Forming A Vision Of Your Dream Job

Discover Your Dream Job Today! Part 1

Know What You Want!

To achieve that, there’s only one place to start that’s inside your mind.

Creating a vision and a mission of what you want out of life will provide you with some direction and momentum to move forward and find your dream job.

If you have laid out your goal and a plan with a realistic and worthy vision for your life ahead, you will notice how differently you perceive and react to things.

A compelling vision will make you feel good about yourself. Also, it leaves you with a clear mind, which allows you to make rational career choices and decisions and fit them in your scheme of things, keeping the bigger picture in mind.

Ask yourself the following question:

What do I really want to get out of life?

A true mission has to express your purpose for existence.

Here’s a series of questions for you to ask yourself. These questions will probe your mind and help you get valuable insights. You can aim at some soul searching and searching for answers to those unanswered questions.

Take the time now, and spend 30 minutes answering them before you move on.

• When you were a child, what did you want to be “When you grew up?”

• Name three people who have had the biggest influence on your life and why?

• If you could do anything for a living and get paid whatever you wanted, what would you do?

• Name your top three achievements of your life so far?

• What was so special about them?

• When you are at your most happiest in life? What are you doing?

• Name three people that you admire the most?

• Why do you admire them? What characteristics and qualities do they have?

• Have you ever done anything for anyone less fortunate than yourself?

• If yes, what was it? If no, why not?

• What are your greatest strengths?

• What could you do in life to maximize your strengths?

• Is there anything that you would be willing to put everything on the line for?

• What would it be and why?

• If you could have your time over again, what would you have done so far?

• What results are you currently having in your life, which you are pleased with?

• What results are you currently having in your life which you are not pleased with?

• If you could pass on a piece of wisdom to the whole world that you have learned in your life to date, what would it be?

• What do you value the most in your life?

• What would you really like to do with your life?

This exercise will get you thinking … really thinking…

Answer these questions honestly, that’s very important, or exercise would be either futile or the results misleading.

We all have had dreams and aspiration while growing up, but somehow we lose them as we get caught up in the wheel of life.  Our aspirations take a back seat and our commitments and responsibilities take over.

Now is the time to start from scratch again and achieve that heavenly feeling called contentment!

Take a glance over your answers to these questions and then move on to the questions that follow.

Q. The purpose of my life is to …….

Writing a mission statement can be a very enriching experience and it is better to think it through and not rush through it. It’s your very purpose of existence that you are laying down after all!

If possible you should try and get away from your routine environment.

Go for a walk, or take a short break - your mission in life is far too important to be skimmed over.

When people lack a mission in life, they tend to just have materialistic goals and want “things”. Not that it is wrong. Material things can only serve as a means but confusing the means to be the end can create problems later on.

Here’s an example.

Charles, a 55-year old bachelor, had till now thought he had lived a full life. His glass factories are now spread across six countries, churning out more and more money. He has properties across the globe, and lives life as he wants to.

But something happened when he became 55 years old. He discovered he had cancer, a brain tumor that will only give him 6 more months to live. Undergoing treatments, he was cut off from the web of activities and people he was previously involved in.

During this period he met some people who were also suffering from the same disease as he was. But his ‘new’ friends had other problems. They were actively making plans as to what they should do in the next six or seven months so that their family will miss them less.

It was thus suddenly one day that Charles realized he had nothing to leave to anyone. The Managing Director of his company had as such been the one running his business and he will continue to do so.

His passing away was not going to make a difference to anyone….

That was a really sad realization, but there was not much now that Charles could do.

You might not understand the full meaning of Charles’s realization, however, the bottom lines are ‘what difference has our life made…what will we be leaving behind for our family, society, world?’

If it was nothing much, then how do we say our life had been a success?

If you are going to end up with superficial goals, they might make you happy in the present but when you have achieved it all, you still might end up asking yourself “Is that all there is?”

We have time in our hands now, and we can make a difference.

There’s another exercise to help you plan. How about penning down your obituary?

Yes, it might seem a little too early to write that, but penning down what you want the world to remember you by can really help you set a higher bar for yourself.

This is an ideal way to get you to think about what you want to do in your life time.

As you look back on your life, you may find that your goals and desires may have been a bit skewed. Hang on! This is how the revelations will come through and get your life in perspective for you.

Instances which you brush off as usual happenings in your life, might strike out and appear in a different light if you look at them this way. Make sure your priorities are in place.

For starters, answer these…

• What do you want to be remembered for when you pass on?

• What has your life been about?

• Have you made any difference in others lives?

This is where we end Part 1.  Hope you found some answers, and things are becoming clearer and in focus.

Coming up in Part 2 - Defining Success