Tag Archive for 'Choosing a Career'

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Discover Your Life Purpose Through Discovering Yourself

“As you become more clear about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

The path to self discovery is paying close attention to what you value in life. When you are happy about something, your values are being honored. When you are upset about something, your values are being challenged.

According to www.dictionary.com, a value is defined as, “the ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard.”

By definition, everyone has different values. This is because people grow up in different households. People are taught differently. People live in different neighborhoods. And what one person learned was right and wrong is different from what other people might  have learned is right and wrong. Knowing this, it is easy to understand why people have different values. You can also be more willing to accept that it’s alright if someone else’s values are different from your own.

As you grow as a person, you might find that the values you were taught do not serve you anymore. And there may be other values that you hold onto. That is the key right there: keep the values that work for your life and get rid of the ones that don’t.

Take Action

Visit http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/list-of-values.htm to take a look at several general values. Come up with a list of 10 that you feel describe the type of person you are. Have your family and friends also come up with words they think explain who you are as a person. If you agree with your friends and family, put it on the list. If the value does not resonate with you, then do not add it to your list. Remember, it’s all about figuring out who you are. It’s not about others telling you who you are. Although they can be helpful in the process, they can’t define you. Only you can do that.

Once you have a list of about 15 values, take time to think about how you’d like to make these values more visible in how you live your life. If you notice that you are not honoring any particular value, jot down notes on how you might want to apply that value to your life.

Keep these values in mind while thinking about what type of career you want to choose for yourself. Make sure that you do enough research about the career to ensure that your values align with the common responsibilities of your career choice. Talk with someone in that career field to hear about their experiences, keeping your values in mind and thinking about whether there is a match.

Published on Monday November 16, 2009 in Choosing a Career, Life Purpose and Self-Discovery. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Discover Your Life Purpose Through Your Passions

There are some things I prefer doing over other things. We are all wired with our own personal likes and dislikes. At first glance, it may seem like there is no real reason for our personal preferences in life. But that’s not the case. The things we enjoy lead us toward our life purpose. On a grand scale, our life purpose is really who we are meant to be in life. As a result of who we are, we then begin to act out the things we like to do. We act these things out by doing things like choosing our career, choosing our pastimes, and choosing our friends. Many of us even choose not to do things based on who we are and our dislikes of a particular activity.

Take Action

One major step in figuring out what you are meant to do with your life is reflecting on who you are and what you really like to do. Think back on your favorite pastimes as a child. Think about the activities you do now. Most likely, the activities that get you excited are the ones that are related to a career you would feel passionate about.

Take out a journal or a piece of paper and write this information down. A simple brainstorming activity on your passions will exercise your brain and help you figure out what career you’d like to choose. Remember that the choice is always yours, so make the ones that fulfill you.

Published on Monday November 16, 2009 in Choosing a Career, Life Purpose and Self-Discovery. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Ask For What You Want

I was talking to a mother of a college student a few weeks ago, and she was concerned because she felt like her son was drowning in his extremely rigorous engineering program. With the school year coming up around the corner, she contacted a counselor at the school to see if her son could get some one on one attention at a very large and prestigous school located in the northeast region. She knew her son didn’t have the personality to contact someone himself, so she figured she would do it. To her dismay, there was not much assistance available to her son. However, she finally got the help she was looking for after visiting the school and asking around campus.

As a college professor, I constantly hear students complaining about the lack of assistance they are offered to pick classes, figure out a plan for graduation, or even help them figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Time after time I’ve seen students drop out of school because they don’t know what they want to do and lack guidance on figuring it out.

Don’t give up. Demand attention because you know you deserve it! Ask your instructors for advice. Dive into their lists of contacts and talk to people from different careers you might consider.

Visit the career center at your school. Don’t be afraid to ask for an internship. You might not make a lot of money, but you’ll certainly get your foot in the door. That internship might lead to your future job upon completing college.

Being persistent is the key! You pay a lot of money to go to school, so get the help you need. Colleges have a ton of business connections, but you often have to ask in order to tap into them. And many times you have to ask several times and several people before you get an answer, but it’s definitely worth the information.



Published on Monday August 17, 2009 in Choosing a Career and College Success. 0 Comments Tags: , , .