“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- Steve Jobs
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This book is on my list of all-time favorite career books. It is an important and inspirational self-help career discovery workbook. “Creating Careers with Confidence” by Edward Anthony Colozzi will help you answer the question “What career is right for me?”
Dr. Colozzi walks you through a process that is grounded in career development theory. It is very insightful and lots of fun! His caring, creative, and intuitive style oozes through the page when he encourages you to trust yourself in self-assessment as he simplifies decades of complex career research to make it inspiring and practical.
The most exciting part about doing the exercises in Dr. Colozzi’s book is that you end up with a list of occupations that are a good fit with a thorough understanding of why. Also, you will have a step-by-step guide to occupational research. Even more impressive is that you will have a decision making process at your finger tips as he spends a whole chapter on “key concepts for making successful career-life decisions.”
There is a strong emphasis in this book on career-life roles. This is so important in combination with personal values. Without considering this aspect, all your career plans are more likely to get blown out the window as you enter different life stages. Dr. Colozzi also does a phenomenal job presenting stress tips and exercises which can help enable a higher quality of life.
His personal mission is worth noting as it influences every enthusiastic word he writes in the book, “I have devoted my life to dealing with people’s innate need to discover their callings and to be paid adequately for contributing their gifts in ways that provide meaning and purpose, to achieve more balance across life roles, and to learn how to believe in themselves again.”
The book is available at Amazon.com. You can learn more from Dr. Colozzi’s website CreatingCareersWithConfidence.com and find him on Twitter.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of “Creating Careers with Confidence” by Edward Anthony Colozzi. I received no other compensation for this review.
Remember this — at times when you feel like you have no choice or like you’re being forced to do something, you’ve lost touch with your own personal power. Find your way back.
Here are a few suggestions.
- Ask yourself…who or what can I appreciate right now?
- Ask yourself…who appreciates me?
- Ask yourself…what am I thankful for?
- Think of something nice someone did for you.
- Think about a time when you felt powerful and let your body and your mind feel it.
- Be appreciative of how far you’ve come.
Its not easy to let go of the way you’ve been thinking but if you want different results its worth the effort. Often changing your own outlook and attitude makes all the difference…much more is good than is not good…keep your mind on the good.
There is definitely something to be learned by studying those who find their success by following their bliss. Here are some things that characterize those kinds of people.
- They have a zest for their work which fuels their zest for life.
- Most of the time they are happy and energetic and generally a breath of fresh air.
- They seem above the fray and are usually relaxed and composed.
- They are proud of their contributions and move along with confidence and ease.
- They will talk to anyone about what they do for a living with pride and enthusiasm.
How can anyone have that?
It begins with knowing it is possible, and believing you can tap into that kind of abundance. Then move to some visualization…see yourself in those shoes and feel it in your body as if you were already there!
- Imagine that others find you joyful to be around and that even complete strangers will support you in your goals.
- Be cognizant of when you are in a zone, when things are coming easily. These “flow” experiences are major hints that you are on the right track and they will help you identify your passion. Appreciate that feeling as often as you can. In fact, appreciate all good feelings you notice no matter what observation brings them!
- Look for people who are in a groove, study their success, and imagine how you would feel if you had results like them. Focus on the pieces that feel good to you and be inspired to your next action steps then enjoy and appreciate your progress as you go on your way.
Step #1 Pay attention to what you’re focusing on.
This step alone can do wonders for you almost immediately. First understand that what you focus on affects your emotional state, or how you feel.
If what you’re thinking about makes you feel bad it affects your energy level in a bad way. If you’re thinking about something that makes you feel bad you will quickly start to feel stressed or tired or just generally have a bad attitude.
On the other hand, if what you’re thinking about makes you feel good it affects your energy level in a good way. It doesn’t really matter if what you’re thinking about it is true or not what matters is if it helps you feel good.
So use this to enhance your career. For example if thinking about the weekend or free time makes you feel good then don’t wait until Friday to daydream about the weekend. But if thinking about the weekend makes you feel bad because you want it to be the weekend now or it makes you yearn for the weekend, then avoid thoughts about the weekend choosing to focus on something to make you feel good instead.
Here is another example. On a recent episode of Dancing with the Stars, Olympian Evan Lysacek was being coached by his dancing pro Anna Trebunskaya. Evan is a top notch technician but was not good at showing emotion in his dancing. Anna asked him, “What makes you happy?” Evan mumbled something about cars and then said, as his face lit up, “my baby nephew!”
He then proceeded to show cute little videos of his nephew on his phone to his coach smiling & laughing the whole time. Anna capitalized on that reaction and brought it to his attention. Long story short, he danced like a whole new man in that week’s competition. Even more importantly, he now knows a trick (shall we say, a Jedi mind trick?) for something to focus on when he notices he is not feeling as happy as he could.
Step #2 Use your strengths in your career.
Strengths as related to careers are activities that you enjoy doing, that you do well, and that you don’t mind doing repeatedly. This new hot philosophy on strengths was developed by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton in the book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths.”
They promote the idea that we can be happier in our careers by focusing on strengths instead of trying to improve weaknesses. In fact, they say that one can advance further and faster in skill attainment by practicing and developing one’s strengths rather than one’s weaknesses (for example, their idea that you can work everyday to improve a weaknesses and achieve only lackluster results). The book is a little long winded because of all the theory and development talk, but when you buy the book you get an assessment code to enter online to take the assessment. The more recent version is StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. The book is much more of a friendly, quick reference which also includes an assessment.
Step #3 Be selfish.
No, I don’t mean selfish in a bad way. It is simply that factoring in everyone else’s opinion of what you should be doing in your work, (or for that matter what anyone thinks about the work you do) is exhausting and fruitless…so be selfish! After all, YOU are the one putting in the time and attention to whatever you choose for your career, and you are the one noticing everyday how you feel about your career (see step #1). So be selfish, and take charge of your career development to make sure your work is life-enhancing.
You have to control your focus to be happy…in fact it is the only thing you do have control of. You can’t control others or at-the-moment situations you find yourself in but you can control what you think about and give your attention to.
Sometimes people are surprised to realize what an inside game career management is. In fact if you are feeling stuck about what major to choose or what career to choose or what job to look for next, a great first step is to start envisioning what your ideal career or job looks like. This can only come from the inside! Only you know what you prefer and how you would like to live.
People really underestimate the importance of thinking about the the lifestyle they prefer when choosing too. It reminds me of a story I once heard about a fisherman who goes out to fish for a few hours everyday to earn his living. Then comes home, enjoys lunch, plays with his kids, then goes to town to play guitar each evening with his wife. Some vacationers come to town and one guy can not resist telling the fisherman how he can get more wealth by building up his fishing operation. Long story short, the fisherman is already living how he wants to live! The point is that that often lifestyle choice is a good way to weed out distractors. You might like to hear the short story for yourself though.
Another thing to consider early on in your decision making process is your natural strengths. This is very important because a fulfilling career is built upon natural strengths which enable one to work with ease and to gain expertise faster. Sometimes defining your strengths can be tough because we often tend devalue what we do well — everyone can do that, it’s not special…that kind of inaccurate thinking.
So one action to take is to record what you believe your strengths are. Then take some time to go to 3-6 people who know you well and ask them what they have observed that you do easily and well. Take notes and compare responses, including your own, to come up with a list of your natural strengths. Another good tool to try which I have mentioned before to get more data about your natural strengths is Marcus Buckingham’s “Now, Discover Your Strengths
Next, you can take what you have learned about yourself and start comparing that data to what is required in careers you are considering. You do that not only with internet research but with invaluable field research a.k.a. informational interviewing. Can I just tell you, it is amazing how much the view of a potential choice can change after talking to a few folks already in the career field. I cannot overemphasize how learning about careers in this way brings career choice to life (in addition to the other perks of actually talking to people and building networking relationships)!
Mostly though, I encourage you to follow what appeals to you now as that is a big indication of your intuition at work. Follow your nose with an understanding that you may not end up where you thought but career choice a process not a destination. I encourage you to dive into the process one optimistic step at a time.
Thinking about past experiences in school as a child and teen is an often recommended exercise that can help you recognize where you are naturally skilled and activities you enjoy. You have to be careful and thoughtful in the interpretation though. For example, I used to love to ride my horse as a preteen. In looking back later during a career reflection, it would be easy to me to take off on a tangent about how to involve horses in my career. If I imagined taking some kind of route like that, I would realize that it just doesn’t feel right to me. I’m not that interested in horses! So after more self reflection I was surprised to realize that it was more about the sense of freedom and independence I got from horse riding. There was also a bit of risk-taking involved as well as a camaraderie that I enjoyed building with the horse that really drew me to the activity. Now, I can see now how this past joyful experience plays into my career choice of being an infopreneur.
It all begins by knowing yourself. That is not to say that you will choose one career for life, no, it is an ever evolving process of making more and better distinctions of who you are and what you want to accomplish in your lifetime. It is about, learning, researching, and talking a little everyday about potential and opportunity. It is not in obsessive thing though. It is more about going with the flow in a productive manner yet always honoring when you are right now in the process.
I have been thinking about the money flow difference between coaching and mentoring and it has been good food for thought. Surely mentors get some other sort of compensation for their contributions (rather than the green stuff), maybe not from the person who sought out their expertise but from somewhere else. Or, maybe they do get something besides money from their mentees. They might receive stimulation for their own development and/or creativity; or they might simply get another set of ears to hear them speak about their passion which may feed their energy and motivation. That could be worth more than money because of the richness of the experience.
Go and see!
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