How to find a calling on your own in 7 days

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We are glad to present you a guest post in which Elza Utyasheva, a business coach and author of the project, will tell you how to find a job in one week that you want to devote your whole life to.

A few months ago, I decided to launch my online job search and career consulting project. After a while, I noticed that among the standard questions of my clients "how to make an effective resume", "how to behave in an interview", I very often hear a completely different, deeper query: "how to understand what I like to do?" and "how to start doing what you like and connect it with work?"

It turned out that my clients aged 25 to 35 do not feel satisfaction from the very existence of a prestigious job with a good salary, but have completely different requirements for the job and the employer. It is important for them that they like the activity, the working conditions (more and more people want a free schedule and remote work), and they also prefer to understand a certain deep meaning of their activities and know what benefits it will bring.

Naturally, with such high expectations, these people are doomed to constant dissatisfaction with their work. Not having a clear idea of their interests or not finding an opportunity to combine them with work, "shifting pieces of paper" from 9 to 18 in the office instead of saving the world, they get less and less pleasure from work. Longing, they cherish the dream of giving up everything and leaving for the warmth in order to indulge in the search for themselves and their vocation there, hoping to find a magical recipe for a harmonious cocktail of pleasure, meaning and work.

In my opinion, such a trip will only be a change of scenery. Will the answer be found? Perhaps. Only, it seems to me, it is not at all necessary to go far for this. I am convinced that each of us in the depths of our souls knows his calling. It's just that someone reveals it at four years old, and someone remembers at 80. But no matter how old you are, the search for a vocation is always an exciting journey and not at all to a tropical country! It is also painstaking, jewelry work that requires courage, creativity and perseverance. After all, in order to prepare your own exclusive culinary masterpiece, it is not enough to find a good recipe. You will first have to learn how to cook it, and then experiment repeatedly to find the ideal proportions and your own unique ingredients.

For my clients, I decided to study in detail the scope of finding a vocation, collect the maximum and choose the best. In the last three months of deep diving alone, I have accumulated more than 100 exercises, and in fact I have just opened the door to this interesting world. Some exercises are hints and help define a vocation, others allow you to transform it into a new job or bring it into harmony with an existing one. I will gladly share my findings with you!

For those who are ready to go on an independent journey, I have compiled a universal route of seven days. Naturally, the terms for each will be individual. Perhaps someone will find the answer on the very first day, while someone will need to take a break after each task for thoughtful reflection. But the timing is not the most important thing, especially if the journey is exciting. Are you ready? Go!

The first day. Look into the future and dream up

Our fantasies are not only a storehouse of information about ourselves and our goals, but also a powerful source of motivation for their implementation. To make it easier to fantasize, let's play a game. Imagine that you are such a lucky centenarian dreamer. Not only did you live in your mind and health until such a serious name day, you were also incredibly lucky in life, and you achieved fantastic success in everything you undertook. You are healthy, prosperous, you live in prosperity, in a word, you prosper. Your family and friends have gathered to congratulate you and celebrate this significant event with you. Or maybe not only friends, but also reporters, press, celebrities …

Have you presented? Now remember your whole happy life, full of interesting and exciting events. What did you do? What they were doing? Where, in what setting? Who was next to you? How did you feel? Describe your lifestyle, everything that was important to you, all areas of life. Preferably on paper or in a text editor.

Then read your text, preferably aloud, paying attention to how you feel and how your voice sounds. Do you really want these fantasies to come true? Are you ready to try?

To get to where you want to be in 100 years, you need to start the journey in the chosen direction right now.

Second day. Allow yourself everything and dream

Very often, our vocation is hidden somewhere between the area of our interests, the area of innermost desires and several deeply hidden and forgotten childhood dreams. We are so afraid of this Pandora's box that we hide it away in the closet of our memory, so that later we hastily push into it everything that we wanted, but did not come true, it was planned, but did not come true. And then forget.

To open the curtain and take another step towards your vocation, you will need to get this box, blow off the dust and carefully shake everything that you have pushed into it. Think of all your dreams, desires, interests, and everything you ever wanted to try and write it down. For completeness, add the list of improbabilities to them. Do not limit your imagination: the more points you write, even the most ridiculous ones, the better. Let there be 100 or more, but not less than 20.

By the way, this exercise has an interesting side effect. Save the list and check it after a while. Some of your wishes will come true by themselves, without your participation. For everything to come true, you will need to take some action, but that's a completely different story.

When we were little, each of us knew his destiny. If you have forgotten what you dreamed about as a child, ask your family.

Day three. Draw up your ideal contract

Imagine you are a star! You are so professional, in demand and popular that headhunters are chasing you, ready to do anything to get you. You are offered to sign a contract with an ideal salary, in which you are allowed to independently choose what you will do, in what area and under what conditions. Yes, you are so lucky!

You, of course, guess that each of us actually has such an opportunity? If not, I am sharing a secret with you. The modern world offers a choice of a wide variety of professions and fields of activity, any options for work schedules and other conditions. Unfortunately, very often many do not know what they want, or do not want to make efforts to achieve what they want. Or, for some reason, they do not find the opportunity to sit down and think seriously about this issue.

So let yourself be puzzled by them right now and choose the perfect job. Let's think more broadly, because we ourselves are the authors of all our frameworks and limitations. Have 100 items on your list, or at least 20. By the way, this exercise is useful from time to time, as your preferences can change and it is important to adjust your ideal contract so that the work continues to inspire you.

It is worth not only drawing up your ideal contract, but also reviewing it from time to time. Our preferences can change, and it's important to make adjustments in time so that our work continues to inspire us.

Day four. What would you like to give to others?

We are all social creatures. We live in a society and cannot exist independently, on our own. Therefore, I am always alarmed when I hear that someone wants to do something exclusively for themselves. He wants to have fun in the process, achieve self-realization through his favorite activities and get satisfaction from achieving results. All these desires are beautiful, but the questions “Why?”, “Why are you?”, “What is your meaning?” Remain unanswered.

It seems to me that such an egocentric position is initially inferior and defective in relation to the one in which the motive to “give” is present. Activities can be fully satisfying only if you share something with others, serve them. And transforming your hobby into work is only possible if you find a way to benefit others through your activities.

A combination of answers to the questions "Why?" and "What do I want to give to others?" will give the very meaning, without which complete satisfaction from work is impossible.

Day five. What you really like and really enjoy

Until this day, we have focused on your dreams, interests, desires and what you would like to do. You were not limited by anything other than your fantasies and self-created limitations. Your dreams, interests, and desires are guides to your vocational work, but they carry a certain amount of risk. If most of them have remained in the fantasy world and you have not tried to implement them, you cannot be sure that this is exactly what you like and enjoy. Nevertheless, these lists are very important in revealing the vocation. Let's leave them for a while.

Now we will return from the realm of fantasy to the real world. Your personal experience is another important source of information on the path to your calling. By carefully going over all your attempts to do something and the degree of your pleasure in the process, you may also find clues that will lead you to the calling.

Think about what you really enjoy doing and what you really enjoy doing - in your past jobs, during your studies, during any other activity you have been doing. Let me remind you that the key difference from the list you made on the second day is that you have tried it and you know for sure that you are enjoying it. As usual, aim for 100 points, and keep them at least 20.

You can only be sure that you really like it and bring pleasure by trying what you dreamed of. Look for your calling in your experience and experiment more with your fantasies and interests.

Sixth day. Your talents, abilities, skills and their reflection in others

Each of us has many talents, whether we develop them or not. Think about what you are good at, what have you achieved heights and achievements in? You probably have something that you know how to do better than others. Don't know about this? Think about what requests are usually made to you. Don't you remember? Then take a chance and ask! Call your loved ones and friends and ask them what they would have lost if they did not know you. Be prepared for the most unexpected answers. You will definitely learn a lot of interesting things!:)

Your talents and abilities will point you in the right direction towards your calling. If you don't know what you are strong at - ask others!

Seventh day. Role, skill, vocation

The seventh day is the day of analysis and answers to questions. Read each list and analyze it. Pay attention to the points that:

• repeated several times;
• seem to you the most valuable and important right now;
• cause you a special response and awe.

Select about 10 items from each list (the number of items is not a strict parameter). Divide the items into four groups:

• Field of activity (medicine, art, sports, and so on).
• The essence of the activity (what exactly to do, what to do).
• Conditions (where, how, with whom, what time).
• Qualities and skills (how and what I can do).

Write down all the points on a blank A4 paper or in a new word processor document. Add a description of your ideal lifestyle from day 1 and answers to the question “What do I want to give to others” from day 4.

Analyze the resulting description and answer the questions: “What am I really doingwith the world when I do this? "," What am I really give to the world when I do this? "," What is my real role when am I doing this? "," What is my exceptional gift what is mine skill and vocation when am I doing this? " Take your time, these questions require serious thought. The answers to them will allow you to find yourself.

Do you want to connect your vocation with your work? Abstract and look at the resulting result as if from the outside, as if it was written not by you, but by another person. Write job options that would suit such a request. Show others and ask them to name options that work for you. If you dare, post on the networks. The more people with different professional erudition you show, the more varied job options you will get. It is desirable that you get a list of 20-30 different career options. Choose from them one or two or three that you like the most.

Assess reality. How close and in tune with your request is what you are doing now. Think over a strategy. A cardinal change? Smooth transition? To work at the same job, but the vocation to make a hobby and develop in an interesting direction in parallel? Write a plan. Take the first step. Check it out experimentally.

This will take several months or years. Fearfully? Be afraid, but do it. These few months or years will pass anyway, sooner or later, and you either try or not. Hurry up, because no one knows when his centenary will come. Remember, happiness is not the final destination; it is the journey itself. Even for a few seconds getting closer to your ideal life is already a result.