The other day a client of mine was telling me the story of how she’d felt pressured by her father to study engineering in college. After graduation she went into the field and was just miserable. A while later, after some serious reflection and soul searching she decided to go back to school again and study drama, something she’d always been attracted to but didn’t feel would “fit” her needs for financial security and stability. She had no dream of becoming “famous” or the next great leading lady, but it stirred her soul and she learned a lot. A few years later by “chance”, she came upon the opportunity to take her present job in real estate development. She loves it because she uses so many of the skills she learned in drama. In her present position she often has to convince powerful, diverse and often resistant people of the advantages of proposed developments. In this process she uses some of what she picked up in engineering and a good deal of what she learned in drama. She’s very successful and good at what she does. She can connect with quite a variety of “audiences” and finds it both meaningful and rewarding. But none of this would have come about if she hadn’t had the courage to follow her enthusiasm and break out of a mold that just didn’t fit her.

In planning for a career it would be ideal if we could develop a clear vision of who we are and what we want out of life. But all of us are exposed to both internal and external pressures that make us feel we’re caught in a deep fog. External pressures come from well meaning friends, family, teachers, bosses, and of course the ever present “conventional wisdom” of whatever group or subgroup we may belong to. For example, we’re expected to conform to certain ways of speaking or thinking or dressing to win acceptance and approval.

Internal factors can have just as much impact on what we think we ought to do. Strong talents and abilities drive us to find some expression for them in our life and work – even if that work flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Our personality influences whether we will gravitate toward working with people or things, whether we get energized by working independently or in teams, and essentially what will have inherent meaning for us. Our ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES dictate what’s important to do. Our goals express ambitions and needs. The stage of life we’re in tells us whether it’s time to settle down or change to something new.

I have often thought that most people, deep down inside, already know what they’d really like to do with their work and lives, but get confused by all these competing internal and external pressures. Out of this place of confusion I’ve often heard clients tell me that’s why they’re so stuck. The antidote to this might be to take some time for real reflection about who you are and where you’re going. You could call this your personal/career vision. Here are some key factors to consider.

Abilities and Talent: Abilities are what come easily and naturally to you and are considered to be innate. There are objective tests you can do to discover your natural abilities and you can find a sample of ability testing on my website (www.CareerPathStrategies.com - The Highlands Ability Battery page) Sometimes natural abilities are so strong they “drive” us into certain fields that allow us to give them an outlet. This is one problem with strong abilities because we don’t always find an outlet for them in the work we do.

Skills and Training: As opposed to abilities, skills are learned over time through education, training and experience. Think over the span of your career on the jobs you’ve had or the volunteer work or hobbies you were involved in. Reflect on the tasks you were assigned and roles you’ve played. Which of these are strongly developed? Which ones do you perform consistently well? Which do you enjoy or dislike the most? Now, reflect on your schooling and training. What particular skills did you learn? What have others who’ve worked with you said you do well?

Interests: There are tests to identify interests but you can also get at these with a little work on your own. Reflect on what you do for relaxation and entertainment. Or, what you wish you could find more time to get into. Start a folder and for 2 or 3 weeks clip out articles you’ve read and put them in the folder. Make notes of titles of books you’ve read and put those in the folder. Do the same for events you’ve attended or clubs or group meetings. At the end of this period review the folder and look for topical themes that these activities or readings fall into. These represent your interests. Don’t forget your hobbies and perhaps add in some reflections on what you’d like to find more time to do. Of all the career factors this one gives the “juice” to what we do and makes things exciting.

Personality: One of the most widely used personality tests in career counseling is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which presents information about your personality type and can identify careers that your type is most often drawn to. You can find information on this test online but will need to do some work with a trained counselor to get the most out of the results. Aside from this, you can reflect on questions like: Whether you get energized being with others? (Extroverted preference) Working in a team? (Extroverted, Generalist) Working alone? Being an “expert”? (Introverted preference, with Specialist orientation) Do you like long assignments that allow you time to really sink your teeth into something of substance? (Specialist) Or, do you need to have variety and the challenge of new things in your life? (Generalist)

Values and Goals: There are “values sort” types of exercises you can do to identify ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES, but you can also identify these with some reflection. ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES are what you feel are important. Examples of ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES are: Security, stability, power, influence, status, money, helping others, building relationships with others, honesty, and learning new things. Goals are what you want to accomplish. An example is to earn a college degree or passing the bar exam. Goals and ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES often go hand in hand and are often an integral part of who you are.

Family Influences: These can be subtle or obvious: becoming a doctor in a long line of physicians in the family. Sometimes, we’re just not very aware of the influence of significant others on our career selection, but with some reflection it can be brought out. It helps to review these influences so as to give yourself a chance to see if your career choices are actually your own and not something you’re feeling obligated to do for approval or acceptance.

Now after giving some thought to these factors see if you can state your current career vision as specifically as you can. Get this down on paper. This should be a creative process as much as a linear or logical one. Where would you like to see yourself a year from now, two years, five years? What would you have to do to make that happen? Get more education or training? Be willing to move?

Having a career vision that is internally generated and based on knowledge of your abilities, skills, personality, interests, ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES and goals is a powerful tool. If you can discover this vision and commit to it by creating a plan to bring it about you can truly find deep satisfaction in your life and work. If you know who you are, discover your vision of yourself and courageously follow it, true success will follow. Think of your vision as your inner compass, something to use to find your way through your life and career.