Let me get straight to the point – 90% of adults spend half of their lives doing things they would rather not be doing at places they would rather not be!
We all have come across many famous quotes on the internet such as:-
Do what you love, love what you do.
Choose the job you love, you will never work a day in your life & many more.
Chase excellence, success will follow you.
But the big problem is we don’t know what we are passionate about! we don’t know what are our strengths! We don’t know what we truly love!
All those things we dreamt during our college days are just tricks played by hormones 🙂
Until the late twenties or early thirties, we will be under the assumption that life is a straight line. Life is all about finishing your education and getting a well-paying job, getting married, buying a house & raising kids & enjoying your retired life with your grandkids!
But the reality is different. We learn a lot of things too late in life.
To succeed in anything you need clarity & focus.
How does clarity & focus help you to choose your career?
There was a competition between a crow, a monkey, a dolphin, an elephant, a fish, a sea lion & a dog to decide who was the best. For a fair selection, the judge gave the same exam to all the participants – to climb a tree!
You know the answer pretty well. Except for the monkey, no one is going to win this game.
Working in corporate companies is like climbing a tree. All the employees will be measured on the same scale.
All of us are born with different aptitudes. Everybody is a genius in their field.
If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that, it is stupid.
Unfortunately, this is how 90% of the employees work in the corporate field.
To be part of the top 10%, you need to identify your strengths & weaknesses. You should fight those battles where you will stand a chance to win!
Clarity helps individuals to define their strengths, and goals, create a clear path to achieving them, and make effective decisions. Without clarity, individuals may struggle with indecisiveness.
Clarity is where you want to be. Focus is doing what you need to do to get the car to its destination
This leads to our next question – How to identify your strengths & weaknesses?
Make a list of jobs based on the following criteria.
- Your area of interest, hobbies or anything that makes you forget the rest of the world!
- What you are willing to do for free if money is not a concern
- Activities or work for which you were appreciated by your friends, parents, colleagues etc.
- Analyse your personality based on your horoscope. Astrology can provide insights into potential career paths based on your zodiac sign.
- Choose your career based on your personality or MBTI type.
Once you identify your strengths based on the above criteria, create an exhaustive list of all jobs that match your strengths. Anything that does not fit into these categories is your weakness.
Separate shortlisted jobs into 2 categories – Hobbies & professions.
Hobbies fill your soul while the profession puts bread on the table.
Be ruthless in your approach & choose the top 3 careers that will be in huge demand for the next 2 decades & pay you well.
Dedicate the first 3 years of your career to work in each field.
Based on your experience choose the best career which you love to do for the rest of your life!
Best of luck!