Are you in the right career? Or are you in a career that you are not happy with? If you are not feeling fulfilled in your current career, you are not alone. Research conducted by Gallup shows that 87% of global employees are not feeling engaged at work. This is a staggering number.
But given how little guidance there is in choosing the right career for ourselves, maybe that is not so surprising. Many of us may have chosen a career based on our parent’s expectations, following in someone else’s footsteps, or based on what we thought would bring us “success.”
I struggled for years, staying in a job that looked very successful from the outside, but that I was miserable in. Yet I stubbornly held on to it.
How To Find Your Dream Job
I am happy to say that it has been over a decade since I finally left my unhappy job situation and I have since been working in a career I love, helping other professionals discover and thrive in their ideal careers.
During this time, I have developed a system for how you can discover what career is right for you.
Here are the 5 critical steps you need to take in order to discover your ideal career.
#1: Discover who you are
#2: Overcome your self-doubts and fears
#3: Uncover your true life purpose
#4: Find what gives you fulfillment at work
#5: Choose a career that makes you happy and take action
#1: Discover who you are
If you don’t fully know yourself and the tremendous value you have to offer, it will be difficult to see all the possibilities that are out there for you and challenging to convince others what you are truly capable of.
So the first step is to do a deep dive to get very clear on who you are.
You can start by answering questions like:
How would people who know you well describe you?
What are some things you definitely want to experience/do in your lifetime?
What are your core values?
What have been your biggest accomplishments in your life and career so far and how did you accomplish them?
What are peak experiences you have had in your life so far?
#2: Overcome your self-doubts and fears
When I asked professionals what is keeping them from either discovering their ideal role or getting to the next level role, I hear a variety of reasons: There is a feeling of overload and lack of time, not knowing what the path they needed to take looks like, lack of confidence and a variety of fears (fear of failure, fear of commitment, fear of making mistakes, fear of not making enough money if they left their current job, fear of leaving what’s comfortable, etc.)
While at first glance these may look like all sorts of different reasons, when we dig deeper, they realize that these reasons aren’t facts. Instead, they are all beliefs based on fear and doubt. They are all the voices of our saboteurs/inner critics.
Our saboteurs have good intentions. They want to keep us safe, so they try to ensure that we won’t take any risks that have us step outside of our comfort zone where there is a chance of feeling uncomfortable, making a mistake, or potentially failing. Unfortunately, by doing that, they also keep us from trying something new, learning, growing, and pursuing what we really want.
The number one thing that is keeping us from creating a career we love is not a lack of knowledge, lack of capability or lack of time. It is the voice of our saboteurs, filled with fears and doubts that often sounds critical and judgmental.
How do we overcome our saboteurs? The great news is that we all have access to another voice, who also wants the best for us, but is rooted in kindness and compassion. A voice that knows what is possible and is motivating, positive and inspirational. I call that voice our “champion.”
A quick way to access that voice is to ask: “What would I tell my best friend in this situation?” (Or if you have children, “What would I tell my child in this situation?”)
Let’s say you want to make a change in your career and your saboteur is listing all sort of concerns about the potential risks. What would you tell your best friend?
Maybe you would tell them that they deserve to be happy. Or that they are very capable and that you believe in them. Or that there are many opportunities out there – and there is one for them as well.
Do you feel the difference in energy between the champion and saboteurs? The saboteurs will stop us from even trying to take action. The champion will encourage us to consider the possibility, to explore the options, and to take a step in the direction of what you truly want.
Creating a career you love starts with getting out of your own way. And that simply begins with listening to your champion instead of your saboteurs. Are you ready to listen to your champion?
#3: Uncover your true life purpose
If you are living your life without knowing your purpose, it can feel like you are floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean. I know this only too well from my own experience. In my previous corporate career, I wanted to prove myself and my worth through my work, which gave me a tremendous amount of motivation to achieve. It seemed easier to “escape” into work and focus on it, so I wouldn’t have to worry about other aspects of my life. And while the external achievements helped build some validation and esteem, it didn’t really help me feel better about myself or feel fulfilled in my life.
One thing I was missing was a higher purpose: What was I doing everything for? Of course, I could set goals for myself: Take on more responsibility, get a promotion, buy a nice house. But these goals didn’t mean very much without a bigger purpose – and not just for my work, but for my life.
Companies usually have a mission statement that guides the development of a vision and goals. And as part of my job in strategic planning, I applied these principles at work all the time. But I had no idea how to figure out my personal mission statement until I left the corporate world and went to train as a coach.
How do you figure out your purpose? The best way to identify your purpose is with the help of others. But you can start the process yourself. Here is one way to begin: Take a sheet of paper and write “My purpose in life is to…” at the top. Then start writing as many different endings to the sentence as you can, without thinking too much. Just keep on going, filling the page. Put the paper away and revisit it later, marking the endings that resonate the most with you. This is a starting point – there will definitely be some clues to your purpose in life on that page.
#4: Find what gives you fulfillment at work
Based on research by Professor Tal-Ben Shahar, author of “Happier”, there are 3 essential elements to feeling fulfilled. In order to find work that isn’t just a “job”, but feels more like a “vocation”, something that you are meant to do, you need to use your signature strengths, enjoy your day-to-day work activities and work towards something meaningful to you.
1. Use your signature strengths on a regular basis
We all have our unique set of strengths. Some people may be talented at relationship building, others at creating visions, or at creating processes or influencing others, or a combination of several strengths. Research has shown that if we don’t regularly get to use our signature strengths, we don’t feel fulfilled.
What are your signature strengths? Do you get to use them on a regular basis?
2. Enjoy your day to day work activities
Just because we are good at something doesn’t mean that we enjoy it. I fell into that trap many times in my career because I was getting the feedback that I was good at certain things and therefore encouraged to do more of it.
But the truth was, I didn’t really enjoy some of these activities. Again, if you want to be happy in your career, you need to be able to enjoy what you are doing – at least most of the time. What work activities do you most enjoy? It could be creating presentations, leading meetings, coming up with new ideas, teaching others, solving difficult problems, etc. Do you get to do them in your work?
3. Work towards something that is meaningful to you
Just using your strengths and enjoying what you do is great – but to feel like your career is more like a vocation than a job, you also need to feel that what you are doing has a higher purpose. This is what makes a career feel deeply fulfilling.
What is meaningful to you in your work? Is it helping others grow, creating efficient systems that get things done more easily, making spaces beautiful, creating connections or something else? Are you able to find meaning and purpose in your current role?
#5: Choose a career that makes you happy and take action
Now that you have done all this work, it’s time to identify the top careers that fit you and make you happy, create a plan, and take action.
This part requires some online and offline research, getting input and information from others, and taking consistent action.
- Identify any additional criteria that are important to you in your career (for example, autonomy, stability, work-life balance, etc.)
- Figure out what careers and roles are best suited to you, based on your strengths, what you enjoy doing, what is meaningful to you, and what is important to you. Choose your top 3.
- Make a list of questions that you need to answer to determine which of those careers or roles you want to pursue.
- Do your research to answer those questions and narrow it down to your top choice.
- Create an action plan to pursue your top choice. Figure out what you need to address in terms of additional education, money, dedicated time, geography, support, transition plan, etc.)
- Take consistent action towards your goals.
Surround yourself with support
Making changes is not easy. We all have habitual thoughts and behaviors that have been ingrained and that we have practiced for decades. Changing those habits takes time.
You are not meant to do this alone. Surround yourself with support during this important time. Whether it’s friends, colleagues, family, or a coach, you want to get the help of people who are compassionate, understanding and positive, and allow you to be your authentic self.
Manuela loves helping mid-level professionals create a career and life they love. You can sign up here for her monthly newsletter with helpful tips and course announcements.