Careers Planning is FUN
I don’t like the words ‘careers planning’. It sounds dull and miserable if you asked me. Because many of us associate negative feelings with the words ‘career’ and ‘planning’. Of course if you’re reading this, you are interested in looking at getting out of your career (or starting a career) so if you’re looking at getting out, then that’s probably where these negative associations come from!
And there’s only a handful of people out there who genuinely like ‘planning’! But that’s because they’re associating planning with planning other things in their lives or work, that perhaps was a bit dull. Planning your career on the other hand is a surprisingly energizing and enjoyable process. The thing is, you might not believe me, but then you haven’t done it properly have you? So what have you got to base this on? Because if you have done it properly, you wouldn’t be sitting here now reading this!
Still with me then?
Your Ideal Career is Out There and YOU Must Find it
I want to help you to identify the right career for you; your ideal career. Because I believe there is one out there (more than one actually) for everyone. But only you can find it. Don’t think for a second that someone else will find it for you. Or that an online careers test will tell you correctly. That’s a common trap of thought that holds so many people back. And there are other things that get in your way too….
Avoid This Approach
My concern is that there’s plenty of weak advice out there on the internet. There are short articles that skim over what careers planning is all about. They offer things like ‘10 Things to Think About..” or similar. I worry that people take these 10 things and think that they are embarking on an adequate careers planning process. You’re absolutely going to need to dig much deeper than this. These articles are not sufficient.
Who am I to Tell You This?
Having gone through the process myself sufficiently (I know I did it sufficiently because I’ve been working in my ideal career for 6 years now, getting steadily better and better at it as I go along because of the drive I earned myself by making the right choices), I know what it takes. And as I said, I also know that it was thoroughly enjoyable. How can thinking about the things you’re good at, the things that people respect you for, the things that people admire you for, the things that you can do to help other people with, the things you could do that you love that you’d get paid to do……how can this not be enjoyable??
The Right Way
It takes time, a small amount of money (to buy the right resources - I sincerely doubt you’ll dig up adequate resrources online for free - sure you’ll find tasters and teasers that may provide value and set the ball rolling, but I genuinely believe that if you want to take the process seriously, you need to be prepared to exchange value for value) and of course it takes an amount of your effort or energy (although I’ve already said, you get this back as you’re doing it!)
My advice to you for now, is to stop procrastinating and to jump straight in to a sensible methodical planning process. You just need your brain, your eyes, and pen and paper. And I strongly suggest you start off with the book ‘The Pathfinder’ which you can see on the right of this screen. Check out the customer reviews on Amazon to be sure (it’s consistently spoken highly of), order yourself a copy, and get going with it.
And stop the slow, tedious, lengthy process of just posting comments in online forums that say, ‘please help me’. Because you attract people’s OPINIONS when you do that. And opinions are just that….opinions. The problem is, opinions often get acted upon and lead the wrong way. The best people to get advice from in any field or area in business or in life in general, are people who already have achieved what it is you’re trying to achieve. They have experienced what works. The opinion or advice of anyone advising you on your career path who are not themselves working in their ideal career, should be taken with a pinch of salt. As should online careers tests. You need to create peace of mind in yourself that you’re making the right career decision, and you don’t get that from opinions. You get that from facts and figures, a sensible, logical careers planning process. Don’t say I didn’t tell you! 
Checkout ‘The Pathfinder’ (to the right of your screen). It doesn’t tell you what to do for a career, it tells you how to find out what to do.…It’s a small investment with perhaps the biggest return you’ll ever get in your life.
Join the majority! Most people don’t know either, but you’re one step ahead of them - you’ve acknowledged the fact! The others are still working away in the wrong career because they don’t know what the next step is to get out. You’re doing the next step right now.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do for my first few years working, and I ended up feeling very miserable in a number of roles. I gradually felt worse and worse, stuck in a rut, out of my depth, not doing what I was naturally best at (a strong feeling of some sort of wasted talent!), and not feeling respect for myself and from others.
This got so bad that I hit a point when I knew I had to fix this!
I didn’t know what to do, so I simply made it my mission to find out.
That’s what you should do if you’re identifying with this.
It was actually fairly easy to do, was really enjoyable to do, very energising and motivating (of course it is - you’re finding out how to enjoy spending the rest of your life whilst also earning a living!). And it wasn’t long until I found my perfect career, and then made a plan to get into it!
It’s now 6 years later. I’m still working in the same career and because I ended up doing what I was driven to do, naturally good at, loved doing, it has not only felt like I’m not even ‘working’ but I’ve got naturally better and better at it.
When you’re in the club of working in the right career, it’s magical. You get good at it faster, and people are drawn to your service more. They want to employ or buy from people who are enthusiastic, energetic and KNOW about their work. If they love their work, they care about it and they care about their customers and the solutions they provide.
EVERYTHING changes.
So here’s my immediate advice to you if you identify with this post. SET A GOAL WITH A DEADLINE TO FIND OUT WHAT YOUR IDEAL CAREER IS.
Give yourself a month to 2 months to find it. You should be able to find it much faster, but you MUST dig up the right resources that get you THINKING about this area and looking at what ‘presses your buttons’ in life.
An Excellent Starting Point
You’ve got to start somewhere, so take this recommendation from me - someone who has used it, applied it and got it working. Buy this book from Amazon:
UK Amazon - The Pathfinder (click here)
USA Amazon - The Pathfinder (click here)
Then…grab a pen and a marker pen, read it thoroughly highlighting anything of interest and taking plenty of notes. Grab more note paper and do the exercises. Spend the next 1 to 2 months with this in your mind (and you may of course like to check out other resources). And live and breathe the idea that you are on a mission to find your ideal career.
This book is a great starting point. Good luck.
P.S. Subscribe to this RSS feed too! Keep coming back, because I’ll gradually be revealing what I believe is the best strategy for finding your ideal career. And note, I strongly believe that the answer is one only YOU will work out from lots of thought about yourself. I believe that the probability of a careers advisor hitting the right answer for you is extremely low. YES, once you’ve identified some career areas that you’d like to investigate further, then careers advisors may be useful. But please please don’t ask them what you should do. They get asked it all the time, and what’s worrying is many of them try to answer.
‘Careers Planning’ as it stands doesn’t sound all that much fun.
I’d say that’s because it contains 2 words that don’t tend to excite people - perhaps because both words evoke dull feelings to most people.
It’s therefore unfortunately quite a misleading term and it could be this that is partly to blame for turning people away from it. In my opinion, the term should be translated to “creating your perfect lifestyle” or “designing your life”. Because really, that’s what it is.
Now who out there would say that designing their life is boring?? Someone who’s not doing it right. That’s who.
It’s what you make of it. If you design an exciting or enjoyable life, then you’re going to love ‘careers planning‘!
The definition of career planning in BusinessDictionary.com is:
Structured exercise undertaken to identify one’s objectives, marketable skills, strengths, and weaknesses, etc., as a part of one’s career management.
Again, a bit boring that. But it does highlight some information we may need to think about.
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Here’s what you should begin to do (note - this is not an exercise yet! I’m just giving you an overview - don’t start answering these questions yet):
Start with the end in mind, and determine what lifestyle you’d like to live. What would you like to spend your time doing, where, when, with whom, what value would you like to provide other people in exchange for money, satisfaction and respect from others? What would you like to spend your time doing outside of ‘work’? These are all important questions, and I don’t suggest you answer them just yet, because the real careers planning process goes much deeper than this.
For now, just please keep in mind that I came across the idea once that everyone, that’s you included, can do certain things (or learn to do them) that they really enjoy doing and that add value to other people out there. Some of those people can’t so easily do what it is that you can do. Think about it. And therefore they are perhaps inclined to pay you money so that you can do it for them.
So, once you identify what it is that you can do that you really enjoy doing, and then work out how you can reach the people who would pay for it (whether they are a large organisation who needs your help, a smaller business, or individuals) and once you know how to effectively deliver that value to them (ie. get the job done!) you’ll find yourself earning a living much more easily and more enjoyably.
I don’t want to sound all corny but I can guarantee that when this happens, your life will improve significantly.
So that’s what this site is all about.
Bookmark it as it’s changing fast, and tell your friends about it. And hang on tight because you won’t want to miss a trick.
I’ve been through all of this myself and I’m now working on a number or projects and businesses of my own, on my own terms, in my own time, answering to no one, and doing much of my work in cafes or even on the beach! Follow the strategic process I’ll offer you over time and you’ll be living the lifestyle you want to. That’s my goal. And it should also be yours.
Look out for the next update (subscribe to the RSS feed). And don’t forget to send this on to your friends and help pull them from the wrong career into the right one!
Welcome to the Careers Planning Kit!
I have one goal only; to get you happily earning a living in your perfect career.
When you’re working but it doesn’t even feel like ‘work’ and you’re doing what you love and experiencing the rewards you desire as well as earning a living, then I’ve achieved my goal, and I hope you have too.
Why can I help you do it? Because I’ve done it myself and I’ve helped many others do it over the last 5 years through my work. I’ll explain….
In hindsight, careers planning was without a doubt the most important thing I did in my life. It turned my life around, and I’ll explain why and how.
Ever wondered why so many people are unhappy in their work? Well stop wondering, because the answer is simple. They didn’t plan their career. They just didn’t do it. Most people accept that they have to work to make a living and they browse the newspapers or job sites and look for something that they feel they could do.
What they neglect to think about is what spews out the other end of this approach; lifestyle…that they didn’t purposefully choose. Lifestyle - how you live your life, the things you do, experience, own, the people you spend time with, all of this is affected by what you do in your career. Think about it.
Your career is the biggest factor in determining your lifestyle.
Look at it like a simple system. Careers planning goes in….desired lifestyle comes out.
If you don’t plan your career, you’ll get what you’re given.
If you plan it, you increase the chances of getting exactly what you want.
In my next post I’ll explain more about careers planning and why it could well be one of the most important things you’ll ever do in your life. And it’s not just the ‘doing it’. You’ve got to DO IT RIGHT!
Stay tuned…