by Erin Tanner
Creating a life by design happens when who you are and what you do are interwoven into your mind, body, soul, and the choices you make. It’s a whole-self strategy built on inner confidence, clarity, and self-awareness.
Our culture has set us up for failure, promising us that fulfilling jobs exist but leaving us unprepared about how to find them. We’re told to ‘follow our passion,’ but we’re rarely given the tools to identify what our passions are in the first place.
This is where a whole-self strategy comes in. When followed, it will help you in creating a life in alignment with the personal and professional you.
Step 1: Identifying What You Love
We know that work can be enjoyable, but we’re rarely encouraged to hone in and get to the root of what we find pleasurable about different jobs. One way we can start to figure this out is by developing our inner knowing. Begin by keeping a journal of your experiences throughout the day. As you transition from one task to another, keeping the different environments in mind too, ask yourself, ‘What could I learn about here?’ Don’t be restrictive with your responses; write it all down. As you do, you’ll start to pinpoint the aspects of occupations and working environments that have you saying, ‘Heck, Yes!’ or ‘Thank you, Next!’
For example, if you find you enjoy working in co-working spaces like cafes, and the thought of working in an office turns you off, you may want to consider remote only positions. If you enjoy working independently, you might want to consider careers that do not include much collaboration such as freelancing, writing, or programming. Consider all aspects of what you’re experiencing and be as specific and detailed as possible.
Step 2: Inside Voices
Part of mastering a career we can love involves coming to terms with our inner voice. When you trust yourself, decisions become clear. You build personal proof that You can trust yourself, leading to influence confidence, and authority.
We need to pay keen attention to which voices are loudest in our minds, where they came from, and what they are telling us.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What do you hear when:
- You have something to do that you don’t want to do?
- You achieve something?
- You fear you aren’t prepared or qualified for something?
From your responses, how would you characterize the things that you say to yourself?
From your responses, how would you characterize the things that you say to yourself?
In order to build the inner trust, you need to hear the kindest voice you have within, over the others and more often! Can you reframe any of your previous responses into more positive ones?
For example, if you hear yourself saying, ‘I’m not good enough, reframe it to say, ‘I’m capable and I’m learning.’ Writing supportive sticky notes to yourself, playing affirmations to start your day, and taking daily actions towards your future self will help by giving you a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are.
Step 3: Don’t Write That Off Just Yet
Oftentimes, we are aware of professions that are related to the things that we find enjoyable. However, if we ask ourselves the question from Step 1, ‘What could I learn about here?’ we open ourselves up to jobs, that at first glance, we could have ruled out. Companies provide opportunities that are on the surface not noticeable until we think more carefully about the required range of inputs.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to discover more:
- List 4 industries that you find intuitively interesting.
- Imagine in detail what types of roles or work that has to go into producing the outcome/product/services from that industry.
- Compare it with question #1. Do any of these roles align with the pleasurable points you need to love what you do?
Creating a life by design is a journey, not a destination. It takes time, self-reflection, and experimentation to find career alignment that is rooted in self-awareness. By completing the above steps, fulfillment, success, and the difference you came here to make are a sure thing!
