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Five Keys to Finding a Career You Absolutely Love
By Carol McClelland, PhD
Are you frustrated with your work situation? Feeling
bored at work? Unfulfilled? Underutilized?
Are you sitting on the fence hoping your new career will
just show up…?
Most people don’t discover work they love because they don’t know how to
go about it.
 They don’t have a strategy.
They don’t know what steps to take.
They don’t know what questions to ask.
They don’t know when to take action.
There are five key actions you can take to find work you’ll absolutely
love.
1) First, discover your HeartMagnet. Your HeartMagnet is the
sensation or feeling you feel when you find something that excites you
and intrigues you. When you connect with this feeling, you can use it to
identify your passions and interest in life and at work.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and notice how you feel when you see a
home you love, a garden that fills you with joy, or an exquisite flower.
Don’t worry about what you are attracted to. Instead, focus your
attention on what you feel when you notice something you love.
Once you have a sense of this feeling, watch for instances when it
reappears in your life. It’s sure sign that you’ve run across something
that draws you in and excites you.
2) Use your HeartMagnet to create a list of all of your passions and
interests. As you identify skills and interests that trigger your
HeartMagnet, record them immediately. Whether you start a file on your
computer or keep a journal, do what you can to record your new insights
as you get them.
Don’t stop with just one passion. Finding work you love is like hunting
for a treasure. Every passion you discover is a clue to help you find
your treasure. The more clues you have, the more likely you are to
identify a career you’ll love.
Don’t worry at this point how your varied skills will come together or
whether your passions will be profitable. Leave those practical issues
aside for now, so that your list can be a true representation of your
dreams.
When you’ve built a list of thirty or forty passions and interests, then
begin playing with various combinations to discover creative ways to use
your talents. It’s important to allow your ideas to flow without judging
them or worrying about their feasibility.
3) Pay attention to how your new career ideas support you in living
the life you want. As you evaluate your options, pay attention to
how each career will affect your life. If a career won’t allow you to
live the way you want to live, then it’s not a dream, it’s a nightmare.
4) Take the time to explore and investigate your ideas for your next
career. Before you jump into action, investigate your top two career
ideas. Throughout your exploration, focus on two goals.
First, verify that the career/job is what you think it is. The last
thing you need is to take action to get into a new career only to
discover that it’s not what you thought it was.
Second, confirm that the career will result in a situation that is a
good fit for you, your family, and your lifestyle.
5) Remember, finding your dream career is a journey not just a final
destination. Immerse yourself in your passion and allow each step to
unfold. Enjoy your journey of discovery.
Keep in mind that as you change and your lifestyle changes, your needs
will change as well. When this happens, you may find that the career you
once thought was your dream may have lost its appeal. Allow your dream
career to evolve as your needs and interests change.
Carol McClelland, PhD, author of the Seasons of Change
and Nature’s Wisdom Deck, continues to incorporate her passion for
nature into her work of helping people navigate difficult life
transitions. Her powerful nature metaphors give people the permission
and guidance they need to find their way out of the dark confusion of
winter and into the exciting clarity of spring. You can learn more about
her model and her training programs and request a Seasons of Change
workbook at her website:
www.seasonsofchange.com
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