What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up – Part 2

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By Diane Lang

Continued from Part 1

consultLast week we discussed finding your true calling. This week is the work week. Go get a pen and a piece of paper and get ready to answer some important question to help you make the decision: “What do I want to do when I grow up?”

This post is a coaching session for yourself. Make sure to be in a quiet spot where you won’t get disturbed. Be completely honest and don’t judge your answers. There is no right or wrong career path or journey.

Lets start off with your dreams:

1. What careers/bushiness do you find yourself daydreaming about?

2. What were your dreams as a child – when you were in Elementary school – what did you dream of being when you grew up before reality hit?

3. Why didn’t you fulfill that dream – a lot of times we don’t fulfill our dreams due to outside reasons that we heard from our parents, friends, society, etc.

For Example:

* Music, Art, writing, modeling/acting, etc – those aren’t real careers, the odds of you making it are slim.

* You wont make it through all that schooling.

* We can’t afford all that schooling

* Don’t you want to follow in the family business?

This is just a few of the reasons we stray away from our real dreams.

4.What is your career now? do you like it? What part do you still like and what parts of your career don’t serve you anymore?

5. Could you take your current career and mold it into more of a fit for who you are today and your lifestyle?

Value System:

1. What do you value?

2. Does your career match your value system?

3. Does the company you work for match your values?

4. What legacy/footprints do I want to leave behind?

5. What moves me in life- If I was an activist, what group of people would it be for?

6. How would I want my kids to describe me?

7. What changes do I want to see in the world?

Hobbies:

joggers1. What are your hobbies?

2. Could you make your hobby into a career and would you want to?

3. Could you see your hobby becoming a full -time career – I know a lot of my clients love working out and being active but when asked if they could do it all day, there answer is clearly no. So, this would mean its just a hobby which is fine but for some there hobby could be a career.

4. If you could see your hobby as a full -time career why haven’t you pursued it? What is stopping you?

Skills/Gifts:

1. What are your strengths? Weaknesses? If you don’t know its time for a personality test.

2. What personality traits do you have that stand out? Make you unique?

3. What can you offer others?

4. What do you feel you are qualified to teach either out of love for the topic, experience/education for the topic that you feel confident and passionate for or a genuine need to help others in this particular topic.

Dislikes

1 What don’t you like or want to get involved in? For example – anything with math is a complete dislike for me.

You don’t want to just ask the question: What do I want to do when I grow up?
You want a whole lifestyle that works for you so you need to be self-aware of who you are?

A few other tips

1. Have realistic expectations

2. Be patient – nothing changes over night

3. Your next career doesn’t have to be HUGE or change the world, it just needs to make you happy.

4. Be true to your values if not the career wont match your value system and you will end up unbalanced and unhappy.

5. Don’t let fear be the reason you don’t move ahead – step outside your comfort zone and take a risk but start small. ” Baby Steps”

Diane Lang, MA, Counseling educator