Gauri Chhabra
Every year as more and more students appear for the X and the XII examination, the singular question that pervades the students and parents alike is ‘What Career” and the singular advice that they get is “Follow your heart”.
We’re often told that if we follow our heartand do what we love as a career, we will, to quote Confucius, never have to work a day in our life. In theory, pursuing your passion as a career should be easy, effortless and create a monetary nirvana where income flows and happiness prevails.
In practice however, it is not just about following your heart. It involves a lot more…
Career v/s hobby
We sometimes overdo the – ‘follow your heart’to such an extent that the lines between the career and hobby become fuzzy. Hobby is something you pour your heart in it, it does not make you pay your bills. When the same hobby has to pay your bills it has to take another shape- that of a career where there would be complex equations involved, competitors, price wars, market segmentation. Clarity on the elements is truly needed to bring their anticipated utopia to fruition.Failure to understand any of these may make you fall flat on your face and disgruntled with your heart’s desire in the first place. So, by the end of the day, you are left frustrated with neither a hobby nor a career. Consider the countless examples of those who quit their day jobs to pursue passion-related opportunities only to end up emotionally, spiritually, and financially drained.
I’m not saying passion isn’t important. I am saying that you need to focus on cultivating a sustainable career… not merely engaging in a hobby.Creating a flourishing existence that provides a strong sense of fulfillment, contribution and monetary reward is absolutely possible.
Enjoyment v/s excellence
Recognize that activities you enjoy often have nothing to do with how you’re naturally wired to excel.Frequently, people confuse what they’re passionate about with the true gifts they’ve been given.There is a monumental difference between enjoying a particular activity and being able to turn it into a thriving enterprise or career.
For example, I love to sing and when I do, I’m passionate about it. When my favorite song of the moment plays on the radio, I’ll sing along at the top of my lungs.
Although I enjoy the sound of my voice, if the car window is open and others unwillingly end up with a front row seat to my performance, the look I get makes it clear they could live without the noise pollution I’m creating. You are wired to excel in very specific and powerful ways. Delineating between what you believe your passion is and what your innate gifts are is the key to cultivating a career that empowers you to do what you love, what you’re good at and what people will pay you for.
Hiring, managing, and firing employees; sourcing and operating machinery; negotiating terms; buying products and raw materials; setting up distribution; marketing your little red delights and attaining profitability is a much different ball game altogether.
Before making a career choice ask yourself the following questions:
What interests you? What is it that keeps creeping in your thoughts time and again?
This question helps you to focus on your interests. It might be a career that focuses on your natural talents and passions.
Thinking about what you enjoy like sports, hobbies, friends and favorite subjects in school helps you uncover interesting clues about your passions.
If you were free from all the things that limit you and hold you back, in what direction would you go?
Many of us fall into the trap of not even considering certain careers because we assume, rightly or wrongly, that family, physical or monetary constraints will prevent us from being successful.
But when we put aside those limiting beliefs, we permit ourselves to acknowledge and reconsider our hidden aspirations. So imagine your work life without those limits then try to turn that into reality.
What can you do most easily when you are tired or exhausted?
Many of us tend to dismiss our natural strengths as less important than skills acquired through years of study and hard work. But when we place greater value on our innate talents, we’re more likely to build careers around our strengths, rather than our weaknesses.
Where do you visualize yourself working in terms of such considerations as location, type of work, types of co-workers and physical space?
Visualization can be a powerful tool that helps unlock vital clues and patterns that you may struggle to express using words alone. Once you see those patterns, it will become easier to identify jobs and careers that match your passions. For instance, if you visualize yourself as always on the move person, maybe a marketing and sales profile is suitable for you. If you are an indoors kind of a person, you can take up a career in Information Technology.
Once you have soul searched on these questions, you will be able to identify the missing pieces in your life.
The first missing piece is identifying your gifts. You need to identify what nature has endowed you with, something you can put in effortlessly and seamlessly.
The second missing piece is identifying the vehicle you will use to share your gifts with the world. For example, if your gift is healing, the vehicle you might choose to share it could be massage. If communication is your gift, your vehicle might be writing or speaking or both
The third and perhaps most important, missing piece is identifying the people you are most compelled to serve. Identifying your gifts and the vehicle to share your gifts is meaningless unless you know your target audience.
Taking responsibility for your career starts with an accurate assessment of your current skills and performance. Can you write down your two or three greatest strengths and your two or three most significant weaknesses? While most people can detail their strengths, they often struggle to identify key weaknesses. This exercise involves meaningful reflection and, almost always, requires soliciting the views of people who will tell you the brutal truth. It’s up to you to take control of this process by seeking coaching, asking for very specific feedback, and being receptive to input from a wide variety of people. This gathering of feedback needs to be an ongoing process because, as you inch towards a career choice, you will face new challenges and demands.
Reflect on your life experiences, attributes, beliefs and interests to begin your exploration of who these people are. The more you are able to focus your efforts, the easier it will be for you to have massive impact.
Put these elements together and you’ll have the necessary foundation to affect not only those who share this lifetime with you, but also those of lifetimes to come.
Therefore, while following your heart and zeroing in on a career option, make sure that you lay some solid foundation underneath…
For queries contact gauri_nagpal @yahoo.com
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