The search for your career path can be overwhelming.
The decision to find a meaningful career is one that should not be taken lightly.
There are many factors that go into making this type of decision, so it’s important you take the time to think about all the pros and cons before settling on anything.
If you want to get started finding your meaningful career path, here are 7 steps to help you along the way!
Expert tips to help discover your calling:It’s been said that finding something you enjoy doing is the key to a successful career.
It’s a lot easier said than done, isn’t it?
The first step is to figure out what you truly enjoy. Then, after that, make it your career path.
7 Steps to a Meaningful Career Path
1. What do you enjoy doing?
That’s a question worth pondering.
You need something that makes you happy and excites you, so here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Do I like interacting with people or working by myself?
- Do I love learning new things every day or am I more of the routine type person who likes sticking to fixed daily tasks.
We’ve spoken with specialists to assist you figure it out the really important questions to ask yourself.
Ready?
2. Reflect
Before diving headfirst into a particular job, consider carefully. Consider yourself and your hobbies first.
Reflect on this question:
What would you do if you weren’t paid to do it? asks holistic health coach Marissa Vicario.
Knowing how you would reply to this inquiry, as well as what you are interested in, may assist you on the correct path.
Meditating and journaling can help you figure out what makes you happy.
Listen to the small quiet voice inside of you.
Once you have some clarity about the kind of work that brings out the best in you.
And the even more important feeling of doing something purposeful.
- Think about the hobbies that you enjoy.
- What were your favorite classes in school?
- Where you’ve always imagined yourself as an adult.
3. Network
It’s a good idea to network once you’ve got a few options. Networking will not only help you locate the career position you desire; it will also help you make new contacts and meet people in related industries.
However, this will also be a crucial step in learning whether or not this is the area you truly want to work in.
Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a clinical psychologist, suggests networking with individuals in related fields to obtain critical information.
Ask them about their daily lives. What they do on a daily basis.
- What they love about the job?
- Hate about the job?
- Does it provide freedom?
Make your rounds with care.
Durvasula recommends that you talk to both men and women, as well as people of various ages and stages. Ask them what type of training they suggest. University or school is not the only means to acquire a certain skill. There are many options for learning, such as online courses and apprenticeships.
How much time and money can you afford to invest to become really good at a profession?
4. Try out different fields
Now you need to get out there and immerse yourself in the fields you’re leaning toward in any way that you can.
Take any opportunity you can to try them out even if it’s free. It can be ”internships, volunteering, says Durvasula. Sometimes the reality doesn’t meet the idea you had about the field. Or you may realize that you found what you love.
Use the networking and ask your connections about potential internship opportunities with their company. Or if they need extra volunteers for an upcoming function. Get involved in the world in which you imagine yourself. See if you actually like it as much as you think you will. If you find that you do, showcase your best work by doing even the most diminutive task 100 percent. you never know what volunteer position or internship could turn into a job offer.
5. Be Realistic
While Pursuing Dreams & Pay Rent You have to focus in on your deepest talents.
And more importantly what is genuine for your life.
You should dream big.
Doing that may mean that it can take a while to get a job or start a business in your area of interest.
Perhaps you’ll need to pursue an online course or training before you can get the job. Or start that dream business.
Be realistic, says Durvasula. If you do like several areas and find that some are impossible to get into. See if you can create a hybrid, as nothing is written in stone. The rent has to get paid. So perhaps do something for money. While you develop in other areas, but don’t just take a job for the money”make sure it is one of the interests you have.
6. Design a Dream Hybrid Career
There’s nothing like indifference to give you that nagging, stressful feeling in your gut about your future. If you find yourself caught between two career interests and you simply cannot, will not pick between the two, try pairing them together. You’re only truly limited by your imagination on this one.
As Durvasula explains, Make a hybrid. Perhaps your interests are children, art, music and interior design. Options could then be teaching, but also having an interior design business with a focus on kid’s rooms.
If you’re unsure where to start, don’t get discouraged. Building a specialized career can take time. Sometimes hybrids take a while to develop, says Durvasula. If any of your career interests involve a long educational path. You may want to get that ball rolling and then as you are a student. Or once you start your career, build the other interests into it.
Durvasula herself maintains a hybrid career, so she knows firsthand that it can take time, but is worth it. I have always loved journalism and psychology, now I get to do news commentary on the field of psychology, she explains. It allows me to bring my expertise into a journalistic space, but it took a long time to get there”and that’s fine.
7. Trust Your Instincts
Trusting your instincts is crucial to finding the career path that is right for you.
Trust. Your. Gut, emphasizes Durvasula. You are aware of what is best for you. Don’t be swayed by family or friends. Who believe they know what’s best for you. It’s your life” what do you want your days to look like? It’s your life.
All that matters is that you are a creative, whatever your dream may be.
It’s fine if you want to be a writer, a yoga instructor, or anything else. “It doesn’t matter whether you come from four generations of physicians; it’s perfectly acceptable to want to be a writer, a yoga teacher, or any other profession.
Conclusion
Find Your “Why” in order yo find your ultimate place in life. Your unique career path, your ultimate purpose in life.
Why are you here?
Why do you do what you do?
You may discover that you need to feel a sense of purpose in your work to feel like you are living a worthwhile life.
Finding your why might take some time, as Amy Jo Martin, entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, advises.
In the words of Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
It’s not an easy thing to discover.
Some people never do.
I always advise individuals to spend some time thinking about why they do what they do.
Finding my “why” changed my life drastically. and led me to my own bliss: helping others create freedom in life.
