Career Ideas

You might have heard some statement or seen a quote like this. 

       If you can imagine it–you can do it.

This concept is good for helping people open up their thinking to new goals or careers.  On the other hand, the fact that you can imagine yourself as president of the US or the first astronaut to Mars or the winner of American Idol, doesn’t mean that you will succeed or even that you are best off pursuing those goals.

But the other side of this statement is something everyone needs to remember

     If you can’t imagine it, you’ll never do it. 

That’s much more reliably true.  If you can’t imagine yourself owning your own business or becoming an engineer–then you almost certainly will not pursue these careers at all.

With both of these statements in mind, I have my classes and career coaching clients imagine as specifically and concretely as possible what their ideal careers might look like.  This exercise is great as a thought experiment (if thought experiments were good enough for Einstein, why not you and me?), so that you can actually try out a number of career scenarios.  Not only does it help you imagine something so it can become real.  It also allows you to safely “test” how much you really want to pursue each career you test.

Here’s what you do:

• Choose any new, great career or work situation you might like to consider
• Imagine you just completed a typical work day 
• Go through what you did and jot it down in detail as if recording a day log at the end of your day, hour by hour (or more frequently).
• Be specific–9–945 am, had meeting with my business partner about how to approach a new client’s problem of xxx (whatever problem a client of yours might have).
• Go through the entire day in this kind of detail. 

If you’re not sure what a person might do in your imagined new career, go do some informational interviews first with people in the field or read about the career.  Find out what the daily work life is like because some careers sound glamorous but be filled with activities you don’t want to do.

Write a few such days for each imagined career and maybe some days for alternative careers or jobs to see what each looks and feels like.

Very important–it does not have to be your ideal day, only a typical day in a potentially idea career.

Then, the most important step–reread what you wrote and ask yourself: If this was an actual typical day in my life, how would I feel about it, about my career, about myself?  This gut-check portion is a great test.  Very often, my clients or class members will come up with a day that makes them smile, but when asked if the day would be something they were happy with if it became real right now–they start coming up with fears, doubts, and changes.

That’s a GOOD thing.  That’s how you can then reshape the day to be more perfect. 

If a fear comes up, identify it.  That may tell you what’s been holding you back in pursuing this imagined career or job. 

As simple as this exercise is, it can be one of the most powerful as it so fully engages all of your senses and thoughts and desires if you let yourself really do it without holding back because it’s not realistic or what others think you could do. 

It’s fast, fun, and can offer fantastic insights.  Why not give it a try or two?

• Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus 

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

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It may seem like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen it many times–people who are certain they hate their career, everything about the line of work they are in.  They come to class or to coaching looking for a new passionate career.  And then find out their passion leads them to the same career.

I’ve seen people ranging from nurses to construction workers start fighting their own conclusions as they realize that what they really want to do is exactly what they’ve been doing.  After all, they know they are unhappy at work.  What’s going on?

Usually, it’s because they are stressed over a bad boss or being overworked or not challenged in new ways.  The career is fine, the particular job or work enviornment is not.

So how can you distinguish between needing a new career or a new job?  Here are 3 quick, basic questions that can help.

1.    When you think of staying in your current job, but in ideal circumstance in terms of bosses and pay and appreciation (the work environment and culture), how do you feel on a scale of 1—10?

2.    What are the 3 best things about your current job? 

3.    What’s the 3 worst things about your current job?

Review your results and

1.    If your ideal version of your current job is less than a 7, then your career and not just the job may be the problem. 

2.    If the best thing about your current job has nothing to do with the actual work and results but with things like “the coffee breaks” or “the person in the next cubicle” or “the benefits” 

3.    AND if the worst things are all about what you actually are supposed to be spending your time doing, then your career may be the deeper problem.

By contrast, if your ideal version of the current job is 8, 9, or 10, the best thing about the job are job activities themselves, and the worst things are all about how your boss treats you or the pay or hours—then it’s probably not about your career.  It’s about your current work environment, so don’t rush off into another field, at least not until you first try to do something about your environment.  If that fails, look to another job, but not another career.

A career coach can help with career or job issues, but whether you work on your own to figure this out or with a coach, you need to identify the specific, ongoing things that are making you feel like you need to leave—your job or your career.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

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