How to find purpose and change careers
Some people are lucky enough to have had a lifelong dream. Perhaps it was a doctor or nurse they dreamed of becoming. They went to medical school, and then they found a workplace they enjoyed. Employment is steady, and there is always a need for their profession. For most of us, how to find purpose and change careers is not easy.
We didn’t grow up with an internal knowing of our life’s purpose. Perhaps we changed majors in university several times. Or we thought we knew what we wanted. We got our degree, found a job in our field – and then we discovered that wasn’t what we wanted at all. Or perhaps we rolled along from one position to another. We stayed in what we intended as a temporary job because we didn’t know where else to go. The “something better” we were waiting for never came along.
It may seem to outsiders that we have it all. A well-paying job in a respectable field isn’t easy to give up. Yet we may go to work every day and count the hours until we can go home. We wait for the weekend when we can spend time doing activities that we actually like. We fantasize about The question that keeps popping up in our mind is: “am I looking towards 30 more years of this?”
Some people ask these questions more often than others. There are many people who were able to tap into their purpose in almost every place of employment. Even when their job was at a call center, dealing with one angry caller after another, they felt fulfilled if they could offer the client a pleasant experience. There are ways to increase the sense of purpose we feel at the current job we have, like focusing on the value that we provide. Yet some of us won’t rest until we find what we know is out there.
The FOMO and the Fear
How to Get Over the Fear of Leaving What is Safe for What Will Make Us Feel Alive
Making the jump and switching careers isn’t easy. How can we let go of what is safe and secure to step into the unknown? What if we throw ourselves into a new career, only to find we are just as unhappy there – except poorer and older? Do we have the courage to go back to school in our 40s and study with 19-year-olds? Aren’t we a little bit too old for that?
The fear and doubt want to take over. We can give ourselves a million excuses to stall us from going after what we want.
One method we can practice is to reframe the questions we’re asking ourselves. Instead of focusing on what we have to lose, we can try and look at what we stand to gain. Is it possible that we would be happier doing something else? What kind of person do we want to be? When we look back upon our lives, what would we regret not doing? And if we feel too old to go back to school at 36, we might remind ourselves that in 4 years, we’ll be 40 either way – we might as well be 40-year-olds with that degree in hand.
I would follow my Passion if only I knew what it was: Tips for the Figuring out your purpose
In some cases, quitting our jobs might seem like the easy part. How can we know what our passion is if we don’t have the experience? It could be that we have some interests and skills, with no idea how to translate them into something that would deliver a reliable income. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself to help you get nearer to finding your purpose.
- What activities can you get lost in for hours? If your answer is “binge-watching TV shows” or “surfing the Internet on my phone,” try to be a little bit more specific. Which shows are you watching? What about them grabs you and captures your attention? Which websites do you spend your time on? Are you commenting on forums, reading the news, or analyzing fashion trends?
- What did you do for fun when you were a child before you felt the pressure only to do activities you were good at or could turn out to be profitable? What excited you about playing with dolls, climbing trees, or playing video games? Did you enjoy moving around, creating stories, solving puzzles? In which areas today can you see these possibilities?
- What interests do you have that you believe can’t be profitable? Make a list of everything you like to do, even if you think there are no connections between them. One woman thought she didn’t have any interests that she could turn profitable – she just liked to shop. Now, she works part-time as a stylist. Another woman used her “nagging” abilities to help others set goals and create accountability.
- What problems do you feel there are in the world today? Whether it’s an injustice in the world or a patent to make it easier to clean desktops, ask yourself which issues you feel need to be solved. Do some reason regarding fields that try to solve these issues, and what skills you would need to break into them.
- Work with a therapist. The best way to figure out your real purpose is to do deep inner work. If you’re unable to see a therapist, get yourself a journal and write about everything to do with purpose. When do you feel accomplished in your daily life? Make a list of your core values. You can find long lists of values online, for example, “independence,” “service,” “authenticity,” “spirituality,” “love.” Try to find the five that align most with you, and ask yourself what jobs would incorporate them.
- Remember that a job that will fulfill your purpose isn’t going to be perfect. It will still be challenging, or difficult, or perhaps not that well-paid. Yet it will give you a reason to preserve even in the face of hardships. The difficulties will seem worth it because you will feel that the path you are on speaks to your true self.
Making a Dream a Reality
Having a goal is only the first step: we need to figure out what to do to get there. Understanding that you want to create art is a good start, but it takes more than that to become a successful artist. You will need to know how your different skills and interests can intersect. Would you be better off designing logos, illustrating children’s books, or doing 3D modeling?
Next Step
The next step is to learn new skills, and it can be hard to know where to start.
That’s where turning to a professional can be useful to find purpose and change careers. Unsurprisingly, some people found out that what they love to do is to help others find their passion. Some of them have managed to turn it into a successful career. Career counselors, mindset coaches – they all have their place in helping you find purpose and change careers. They’ve been through the process and helped others with the same. They know what questions to ask you and tools that can help.
Whether you don’t know what you want, and only know that you’re not happy where you are, or whether you have a dream that you don’t know how to materialize, turning to a professional can help you make sense of it all. Every person is unique, which means that your path is exceptionally personal. No one piece of advice will give you the right solution for your individual case. Working with someone who understands your story will help you write the ending that you want. To find purpose and change careers is not easy but it can be worthwhile.
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