Most people spend approximately 25% to over 67% of their waking hours working. Eventually, most everyone will want to work in a career that they enjoy and are paid well enough to live a prosperous life. Yet, far too many people end up being miserable in their job and find themselves stuck in a career that they did not choose. People then get discouraged, produce less, and become disgruntled. Unfortunately, people then blame themselves or those they work for, when in truth there is rarely anything wrong with them or people they work for. Instead, maybe their job selection process is flawed which causes them to fall into wrong positions. You have considerable control over selecting your work conditions to get position you are passionate about by following these 11 steps.
Step # 1 Avoid following normal trial and error career selection process
You probably follow trial and error path to select your job or career. You take jobs that appear to be best opportunities and try them out. You adjust to what your bosses and companies want in hopes of advancement. You eventually discover that you are stuck in jobs or careers that you really don't like. You might switch to other jobs and try them out and eventually end up in same unhappy position. You will want to avoid falling back into trial and error selection process.
Step # 2 Avoid following a career path to please others
Many people feel obligated to follow a career to please others or that they feel they “should” pursue. Spousal influence, peer pressure, family tradition, parental pressure, societal pressure, and other outside influences are frequently allowed to dictate career paths. In these situations, you end up working to suit needs, wants and expectations of someone other than yourself and deep conflicts arise. These conflicts cause you stress, unhappiness and income reduction. You end up working at a position you do not like and eventually disappoint people you wanted to please in first place.
Step # 3 Focus first on what you want and enjoy in your ideal career
You have your own inner wants, needs, and feelings. Many times it is easier to follow how others view you than to look for and accept truth about yourself. The only way you will know which career is best for you is to focus first on YOU to discover what YOU want and what is important to YOU.
Step # 4 Discover your true passions
Most people are passionate about something, but have suppressed their feelings for a number of reasons. You will want to discover what you are passionate about so you can find position that will allow you to feel fulfilled. Your passions are always with you and you probably do not recognize or understand them. You will know you are passionate about something when you become naturally excited just thinking about it and even more excited about doing it.
Step # 5 Discover your true desires and priorities
Most people do not take time to discover what their desires and priorities are in life. They seem to just go with flow and hope that they are heading in right direction. Yet, one big reason people feel so frustrated while working is that it conflicts with their true desires and priorities. An example of a desire is: wanting to work outdoors with people. An example of a priority is: placing your family first.
Step # 6 Discover your true values
Everyone has his or her own value system. Unfortunately, people rarely look into their own values and instead frequently accept values imposed by companies they work for. Just look at damage caused to many employees of Enron, World Com, Global Crossing and others whose beliefs did not agree with misguided values of CEO's and higher executives. Were all of employees misguided? Certainly not. Yet, most failed to discover their very honest values, and were penalized anyway, because they conflicted with values of leaders of companies.