by Tarminder Singh | 8 February 2022
A prominent motivational speaker and writer of multiple award-winning books, Simon Sinek once said, "Dream big, start small… but most important: Start". The two keywords here are the dream and start. Many graduates and working professionals often discuss pursuing their dream jobs or dream careers. However, not many know the way to finding their dream career. If you are in this category, fret not! Here are five ways or rather five questions you can ask yourself in your quest to find your dream career.
1. What if money was not an obstacle?
Many people tend to stay in jobs they dislike because of the salary and fulfilling their debt obligations. While it is true that all of us work for a paycheck to meet our financial needs, one way for you to determine your dream career is to imagine a life where money is not an obstacle. Assuming your financial needs are taken care of, what do you imagine yourself doing? Is it flying, helping others, or simply just driving around? For instance, if you imagine yourself helping others, maybe your dream career lies as a counselor or educator.
2. What makes me the happiest?
Happiness is another important question to ask ourselves. We often have moments of happiness (and sadness) throughout the day. The key is to catch yourself in the moments of happiness. Try to identify the trigger that unlocks your happiness. It could be seeing someone you love to smile, or it could be that feel-good factor in volunteering for a cause that's close to your heart. Identifying these moments of happiness can provide you with clues to your dream career.
3. What do I look forward to every day?
Not many wake up in the morning, regularly looking forward to the day. However, there will be days when you can't wait to wake up and go about your day. Dig deeper to see what makes that day different from the rest. Is it meeting some new client or looking forward to the new assignment your supervisor is about to give you. Alternatively, it could be meeting up with your friends after work to discuss business ideas or even unwinding.
4. What am I willing to sacrifice?
This is by far the most proverbial question to ask ourselves. Dreams don't work unless you do. Even if we identify our dream career, we need to plan to land our dream careers and work on it. At times, our dream careers may require us to sacrifice some aspects of life, such as social time, outings with friends, etc. However, all these sacrifices would pay dividends down the line and motivate them to have a successful career.
5. What do I dislike doing?
Identifying dislikes is equally important as identifying likes. For instance, if you are an introvert, chances are you will dislike presenting your business idea to a large crowd. If you are an extrovert, you might dislike personal meetings and rather be at your company's social function mining business. These are important as knowing what you dislike brings you one step closer to identifying your dream career.
Did you manage to answer all of the questions above? If you did, congratulations! You would have a good idea of what your dream job or career looks like. You are ready to take a massive step forward and climb up the career ladder.
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