Inner Projection

Career transition assistance is critical, especially if you didn’t get it right the first time. This is not a knock on those who are looking to change careers but rather on the educational system that dispenses knowledge but rarely if ever works closely, carefully, knowledgably, mostly listening to the student’s needs in the first place rather than merely dispensing one-way advice. This is what counselors, advisors, consultants do. They dispense their knowledge while you sit there, take it in and worship at the feet of their understanding. OK, they all may not be as such, but you get my point. For most, it’s difficult to pinpoint one’s own interests even after some consideration and time, never mind getting outside guesses from people who hardly know you.

So what should be done at the outset so that there are not so many career changes or career transitions for the majority?

To get things right, you need an impartial coach who works at pulling from within you your answers, not a family member, mom or dad, or educational counselor. Why none of the above? They are either too close to you or have an agenda. Also, if you are getting advice from the public sector just consider the difference in service between the DMV and Blockbusters (or choose any business in which customer satisfaction is critical to success). Institutions that are not-for-profit are not competitive and therefore rarely gage their success based on consumer success or satisfaction outcomes. Those for-profit institutions better be successful, using the best products and services, or they go out of business.

By having a person who is impartial, experienced, and understands that the answers lie within the student or person seeking a career or career change, and to have that coach work with the individual for as long as it takes to reach a definitive understanding as to what he or she was put on this planet to do is critical to your success.

Whether you believe it or not, we all have a certain sub-set of innate talents, abilities, and gifts that when exploited bring not only financial success but also great fulfillment, or as Abraham Maslow would have said, actualization. And it frequently amazes me the number of people who compromise and never achieve complete and utter happiness in their career. Since this is a free country, the freest on earth, why some would choose to spend one third of their life working in a field they don’t love with all their heart is puzzling to me. Certainly, it takes work and time to change, but as far as I know once we’re dead we aren’t coming back, so do we have a choice?

There are always excuses, but if you only have one mortal life to live, and by living that life fulfilled it helps you to reach your potential, and by doing so it fills you with so much passion that you want to reach out with great joy to hundreds, thousands, millions to give them some of the same . . . Well, you see my point. There are few like this, but so many more can be so. How do I know? I’ve lived both lives, and living what you love to do so much that it’s no longer work but something you desire to be doing twenty-four seven . . . Well, once again, you see my point.

I have personally headed down the wrong career path, working a job that was so “not me” that I suffered depression at times to the point of immobility. And since I’ve changed my perspective some twenty-plus years ago, not only has my joy and purpose exploded, but I’ve become much more sensitive to those around me who are living the half-life, the life of the living dead, and shudder at their misery, their frowns, pessimism, and discontent with themselves and their infecting of others with the same. It is neither a pretty picture nor a good way for anyone to spend their short life on this earth.

But back to the greater issue at hand.

What happens in the early days of choosing a career-in college career training or when “experts” help college students career brainstorm-is that the horse is almost always put before the cart. Meaning that a career is all too frequently chosen based on little consideration outside of what the family or society says or where the money or prestige can be found.

Few examples to support based on what I’ve heard from clients and students:

“Hey, my dad is an accountant, and he tells me that once he’s done with his work he can do whatever he wants. He says he usually has a couple hours a day free. I can just play video games. That’s great.”

“Doctors and lawyers get respect. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“I went into law because I want to go back to the South and nail all the rednecks.”

“I was an engineer major, but I changed to architecture.” When asked why? “Sounds better.”

The majority of decisions pertaining to how people are going to spend one third of their lives is based on such sloppy, shallow thinking it’s no wonder that within five to ten years after graduation 70% of grads no longer work in a field related to their major.

Seventy percent! Who says education is the end-all and cure-all?

So to get something right that is so important, you must begin to see that it should take time and effort to discover where you need to be in order to maximize your potential for not only monetary success but for general life happiness.

So how’s it done?

Here I will just summarize, for the way is complex and involves considerable effort, thought, and time.

First, you must look at all important areas of your life. Some examples are health, family, physical environment, money, career, friends and family, romance / significant other, fun and recreation. If you don’t look at your life as a whole in deciding a career, you will more than likely career change and career transition until the cows come home.

But there’s more.

Now you must research your talents, abilities, gifts to determine where and how you will make your money. You will not know specifically up front, but that’s OK. As the successful say, shoot and then aim. You will have a general understanding of where you’ll be going but only by following the path on a daily, monthly, yearly bases, even, will a specific understanding of ultimate achievement come to fruition or reveal itself. In most cases, there is no other way.

Next, you must look at character. We all have character flaws that need to be addressed. Remember that success can come because of your talents and gifts, but just look at the news headlines of the mighty-successful who have fallen and fallen hard and you’ll see why character is critical. As a matter of fact, no amount of talent, ability, knowledge, or gifts can compensate for the self-sabotaging of poor character.

Finally, you must study and know inside and out all the critical success principles: how to work well with others, tolerance of others and ideas, creativity, honor and self-accountability, self-control, succeeding through failure, and so on. Without a thorough understanding here, you are limited . . . in the extreme.

There are other intangibles that vary from individual to individual, but the above is general that which needs to be addressed by the majority if not all in making solid career decisions for the greatest of happiness and fulfillment.

Well, I’m excited. I hope you are too. I always get excited or passionate about what I love. And I love giving people the truth related to life success and fulfillment. Having lived so many years down and out, depressed, hopeless, lonely, unhappy, unfulfilled, I am more than enthused to help people avoid the same. The one thing that I discovered through the school of hard knocks is that there is no need for it.

I’m excited to help you on your path to joy. In time, you’ll get excited too. We all need a passion-career. Let me help you build yours.

Here’s to your success.