Planning a Career Journey

When I was at high school, after about nine months of doing all the classes offered, we were asked to choose our study subjects for years 9 and 10, essentially junior high.

The teachers explained that we needed to choose subjects that would help us in our careers. If we wanted to be secretaries then we should choose commercial subjects. If we were intent on being homemakers then choose hospitality subjects. Maths and English were non-negotiables.

One boy in my class wanted to be a bricklayer like his dad. He proudly proclaimed that he needed to do well in maths and english and that he was going to have fun with the rest.

This was my first real lesson on careers. My mother had told me I could do anything I wanted, although I could never decide what that was. Dancer. Social Worker. Pathologist. Actress. I was thinking about university so I decided to do 'academic' subjects. I was still perplexed by how, at 13, had any idea of what we would do. Was it to climb the corporate ladder? Not really but I had no idea. 

Fast forward 20+ years. I didn't become a social worker or a dancer. I met a fellow and we started both a family together and a business. With the exception of English and Economics I didn't really use much from the courses I chose. Thrown into the world of business, a bit like a ship on the ocean, if there was a problem, I just figured out how or found someone who could.

Then the seas calmed and I realized that I didn't like what I'd been doing for the previous 20 years. Even though I wanted to do something different, I had no idea what that might be.

Working through this to a career to love and be invigorated by took a long time although I had fun exploring options along the way. The closer I got to my perfect [for me] career, the slower and more difficult the journey became. By and large my greatest oppositions were fear and comfort.

They are intertwined but we ignore them.

Fear

Should I stay because of decisions made in the past? I was also concerned about what others would say if I did something different? Will they think less of me if I lived a life I loved rather than a life I'd trained for?

Comfort

Comfort is worse than fear - Staying because it's comfortable and you don't have to stretch yourself. Treading water vocationally because it pays the bills. Staying where you are right now because its too challenging to move on.

Are you underselling yourself to fit in?

It can be difficult to recognise fear and comfort in our careers. One useful way is to hear what you groan about. You groan about the commute. You groan about how tired you are. You groan about how little money you receive. You groan about how little time you have to spend with your family, friends or just to be able to relax. Whatever it is, you groan.

Taking Action

This groaning is the key to your future if you choose to take action. Take what it is you are groaning about and ask 'How could I possibly change this." Are there possibilities to use your talents and strengths somewhere more in line with what is intrinsically valuable to you?

Write it all down somewhere, anywhere, but preferably somewhere you can look at easily. Perhaps you are totally happy with your role but the people get you down or the hours are too long or you are too tired to do anything even on the weekend. Write the groans and the possible solutions.

Don't dismiss anything straight away or use those dreaded words "I can't".

Possibility thinking is one of the greatest tools we have but we rarely use it. We have been conditioned to follow rules and do what is safe and expected. Possibility thinking gives us the opportunity to exercise our creativity to get in touch with our core.

I know you're the one: your childlike optimism, the delight of life and potential that was squashed by years of being told that something wouldn't work, squashed by opinion not expertise.

When employing possibility thinking avoid creating questions that can be answered yes or no. Keep them very open.

Some questions to get you going:

• Is anything else missing from my life?
• Do I have a desire to give back; to be a part of this global community?
• Is there work I could possibly do to address the groans?
• How am I fulfilled in the work I do?
• How could I possibly increase this?
• Who could possibly be involved?
• What I am willing to give up?

Spend time on yourself.  Really investigate. Ask the hard questions. This is only a start.