Three Steps to ‘Follow Your Passion’ into A Career (and Life) You’ll Love
By Beena Kavalam, MBA Professional Development Coach
It’s the dream, right? You wake up every day excited to go to work because your job lets you “follow your passion.” And then Hollywood and every well-meaning friend says, “It’s easy to find that dream job, just believe in yourself and it will happen!” If all we need to do is just believe in ourselves, then why are so many of us in soul-crushing, boring roles?
Finding your passion isn’t as easy as finding your iPhone. There will be missteps along the way. However, the most important first step is to get clear on the direction you want to go and focus your efforts in that direction to find out the right career for you.
Here are three steps to getting closer to a career you will love:
1) Get clear on YOUR STRENGTHS.
In a notebook, reflect on the last year and write down all your successes and accomplishments. Then, reflect on the last three years and write down your wins. Then, think back five years and do the same exercise. Then, go back 10 years. Keep going back through your life and listing all your accomplishments (big and small) until you have several pages brimming with your successes all listed in a notebook.
When you’ve got a pretty exhaustive list, pause and reflect. How do you feel when you look at what you’ve written? Jot a few notes on a fresh page of the notebook and be sure to write the date on the page.
2) Read through your book of successes and identify any patterns and trends you see.
Which wins are you most proud of? Are there any similarities? What are some differences? Based on your successes, what skills have you used to accomplish these wins? What did you love to do? What did you dislike doing?
Write down any patterns, trends, and responses to the above questions on a new page in your notebook. Then, create a list of the top 10 enjoyable skills that you bring to the table.
3) Now think, why should they care?
Would someone actually pay you for these skills? In other words, why should they care? Evaluate each one to see which ones could lead to a career that would suit you. For example, you may be an excellent thin crust pizza maker, but is this a skill someone in your target company needs and/or wants in her team?
Create your list of top three skills that you like doing AND are valuable to the company or industry in which you want to work.
These skills are the backbone for how you will market yourself to your list of dream companies. Use them to follow your passion into a career you love!