|
|
Manifest Your Potential
|
|
|
My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.
|
Why Finding The Perfect Career Is So HardAre you one of the 80% who are unhappy with their job or one of the lucky 5% who have found the perfect career and love what they do? If you are part of the 80%, take a few minutes to learn why you are not doing the work you love. The reasons may not only surprise you, but show you what is stopping you from finding the perfect job or career. Here are the top five reasons we think that people all over the world are not doing what they love for a living. See how many you think apply to you or someone you know ...
1 - You were not well prepared to choose from thousands of careers. For much of human history, what you inherited - a farm, a guild membership or an estate - determined your profession and lot in life. So there was little need for preparing people to make career choices. But now, with the rise of specialization and globalization - there is growing freedom of choice. And with that freedom comes the need to be able to evaluate thousands of options and choose multiple jobs and careers in a lifetime. Few of us are adequately prepared to do that.
2 - You had to make career decisions before you had fully explored what you excelled at. There is intense social pressure to decide "what you want to be when you grow up", choose a well paying profession, and start preparing for it as early as possible. And in some families, there is intense economic pressure to quickly obtain paying work to ensure the family's survival. So often, in the rush to pick a career and start earning money, little time is spent learning what you excel at and love to do. Parents rely on schools to provide career education, counseling and training. But many schools are primarily focused on helping students achieve high test scores and prepare for additional academic training. They have few resources and little time to devote to helping students discover who they are, what they excel at, and how to evaluate tens of thousands of job options to choose the perfect one. So there is little chance schools can cover even the basics of how to succeed at their chosen profession.
3 - Like many people, you view work as a heavy burden instead of a labor of love, so you have never looked for work you could love. Many cultures give the impression that work is an activity so burdensome that you must be bribed with money to do it. This belief is supported by the evidence most kids see growing up -- their parents and most of the adults around them unhappy about their work. Like many of them, you may have assumed that this reality must also be yours. So instead of actively seeking the perfect job, you followed in your parents footsteps and focused on finding a secure, good paying job.
4 - Even if you wanted to find work you loved, you lacked the resources and support to create your own career path. Most job hunting resources help match you with well known job titles using tests which measure your aptitude, interests and personality (see related page links). These are great tools for learning more about yourself and how you fit in the world of work. But they are not intended to help you discover your dream job. Few tools help you focus on finding what you love and excel at. And most try to quickly narrow your job search instead of helping you explore all the jobs your passion, excellence, and expertise qualify you for. A traditional profession usually has a well known career path already laid out to it. But if you seek a nontraditional career, or one that is just emerging, you may find that many career tools are ill equipped to teach you how to successfully create your own.
5 - Even if you found what you love to do, you may not have figured out how to make a good living at it. Transforming your ideas for a perfect career or business into a good, reliable paycheck takes a set of skills few people have learned. It starts with discovering who you are and who you want to become. Next, you need to be able to envision what your dream job is so you can creating a detailed plan for how you can prepare for and succeed at it. More than just becoming the dream candidate for your dream job -- you need know what you are really paid for, so you can use your passion, skills and expertise to make a good living doing what you love. Unfortunately, most schools focus on teaching you academic and entry level job skills -- instead of how to create and earn a good living doing your dream job.
The Next StepIf you are not doing the work you love, learn why by taking our quiz ... Or read about ...
|
|
Home > Work > World of Work 
Related Links
|
 |
