How well aligned is your career with who you are? Does it let you be your best? Does it energize you? Does it tap into your natural gifts and skills?
One thing I’m fond of saying is that, “You can never by anyone else half as well as you can be you.” Sadly, most people go through their work days wearing a mask, doing a job that is out of alignment with the kind of situation that would allow them to be their best.
Not only is a job that aligns with your natural gifts, abilities and inclinations more enjoyable, you also have more potential to excel. First, because you’re tapping into your natural strengths and second, because you’re not wasting energy trying to be someone you’re not. Here are several questions to ask to help guide your career down a path that will let you shine.
When am I at my best?
Make a list of times in your life when you really felt like you were firing on all cylinders. Take a look at each of them and ask, “Why? What was it about that situation that suited me so well? What about that situation allowed the best me to show up?” Look for common themes.
What lights me up?
My definition of passion is “the energy that comes from bringing more of YOU into what you do. One step to bringing more of you into what you do is to understand the common themes that tend to be present when you feel energized and engaged. When you do that, you have more ability to consciously bring those themes into your work, both current and future.
Make a list of things you have loved doing in the past, work or play. Then reverse engineer each of those by asking, “Why? Why was that so much fun? Why was that so energizing?” Look for the recurring themes.
[Here is an article that will take you through this process. If you want to go even deeper, check out my e-book, The Occupational Adventure Guide.]
How do I work best?
We all have different work styles. Some people like long stretches of uninterrupted time to focus. Others need a lot of interaction. Some people like having a lot of balls in the air at once. Others like having a single track to focus on to completion before moving on to the next one.
Explore how you work best. You can do this both by looking at situations where your work has felt in flow (similar to the exercise above) and by looking at experiences where it has felt stilted and unnatural. In the latter case, ask, “Why was it out of whack?” Then flip that on its head, asking, “What would have been ideal?”
What skills am I using when I’m at my best?
If you want to make the most of what you have to offer, it makes sense to tap into your natural gifts and abilities. Using that list you made earlier of situations where you have been at your best, ask, “What skills was I putting to use there? What skills allowed me to be at my best there?”
Use these questions (and others like them) to build a profile of your “best self.” Then use that profile to both look for opportunities to refine what you’re currently doing and guide your career decisions as you move forward.
Because you can never be anyone else half as well as you can be you.
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