Going Places: Finding Your Life's Work

Whether you are 23 or 43, figuring out what you want to do with your life can present a serious challenge. According to Abraham Maslow’s oft cited Hierarchy of Needs, self actualization rests at the top of the five stage pyramid and is the last of the humans needs to be achieved as one moves through life. It makes sense that more basic needs like psychological and safety requirements must be met before higher level needs like esteem and self actualization can be accomplished. Typically, a satisfying career fits into the higher stages of a system like this. It is not essential to survival, but it is key to high functioning and emotional growth that one finds work that is challenging and fulfilling.

Discovering Aptitude

There are myriad personality and career aptitude tests designed to help you figure out your ideal career. These tests can help you assess where your interests, values, strengths, and preferences converge. Some of the most common are:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Strong Interest Inventory (SII)
• Self-Directed Search (SDI)
• Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS)

These will profile you make suggestions that may help you find a suitable path.

Figuring out what you are meant to do

After analyzing your aptitudes, you will be left with your intuition and inclination. What you are really meant to do may take some time and work to uncover. Finding your path is a process that takes many factors into consideration. The intersection between what you are great at, what you love to do, and what you can make money doing may help you realize what you are truly meant to do.

There are numerous books and workbooks on this subject, but, a few simple questions that may point you in the right direction and help you figure out what your life’s work should be are:

What have you always loved to do?

What have you loved doing since you were a kid? What hobby do you do that is so wonderful that you lose time entirely while participating in it? This activity may be a hint at what you are meant to do in life. Think about careers that incorporate your beloved activity in some way.

What are you attracted to?

What is your favorite movie? What music do you love? What are your favorite museums? What countries fascinate you? Your cultural interests may help you find your perfect career path.

What are you really great at?

Sometimes the thing that comes most naturally to you is what you are meant to do. Be it bicycling or painting watercolors, the things that you naturally excel at may hint at what you are meant to do with your life.

When you follow the things that inspire and excite you, you will be well on your way to finding a fulfilling career. When you find the job you were meant to have, you will still have to work hard, but it will not feel like work because you’ll derive incomparable satisfaction from it. Whatever your path, remember that everyone has a very unique part to play. There is something that you are here to do that no one else can do quite as well as you can. When you find that thing, you’ll feel harmonious and expansive and your life will open up with great opportunities.

References

http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=3242

http://www.oprah.com/money/Aptitude-Tests-Career-Assessment

http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/career-assessment/career-testing-find-direction/article.aspx

http://suitcaseentrepreneur.com/build-your-online-business/four-steps-to-figure-out-what-your-meant-to-do-in-life-when-you-have-no-idea-at-all/

Emerging adulthood: Time for decisions and revisions.

Do I dare disturb the universe?

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

In past years, graduation has been a time of excitement and possibility. More often now, I listen to my patients express worry and fear as the big day draws closer.

What is it that has led to this ambivalence about the next phase of life? Why are my young patients so overwhelmed by doubts when they might instead be overwhelming their friends and family with adventurous hopes and plans?

Clark University psychology professor Jeffrey Jensen Arnett has coined the term emerging adulthood to describe what would appear to be a new phenomenon in human development. Emerging adulthood describes the period in a person’s life between the ages of 18 and the late twenties when the child is first emerging from a still protected status into an independent way of life.

But wait, you may say. What’s so different about modern young people that they get a whole new phase of life? Haven’t all humans, then, experienced the same phase throughout history?

Perhaps in some cases, but modern youth face challenges and opportunities that quite simply did not exist for the majority of the population in human history. Let’s consider a few.

Today, graduating students find themselves thrust into an information-based economy. Fewer jobs exist overall, and those that are most desirable require greater expertise, which means more education. Young people must compete vigorously for unpaid internships or burden themselves with thousands upon thousands of dollars in university debt.

Conversely, they find themselves in an entrepreneurial ecosystem that broadens the field of possibility considerably for any person with reasonable intellect, creativity, and even very limited means. The number of startups has increased dramatically over the past few years - 13% between 1999 and 2012. The information economy has made it possible for young, business savvy entrepreneurs to sell their expertise and their products online with little risk and great potential for reward.

Marriage is occurring much later in life, with three-quarters of young people choosing to live with their romantic partners instead for at least some period of time. Likewise, the rush to have children has subsided as birth control has become more acceptable and women’s career options have increased.

This leaves today’s young people in a quandary between the accepted mores of their parents and grand-parents and a very brave new world with seemingly limitless options.

Which way to go? How to decide among them? Do I dare disturb the universe?

The good news, graduates, is that you don’t have to decide today. Emerging adulthood is a natural by-product of longer human lives with many more opportunities to make decisions and revisions in the years to come. Enjoy your special day today. Do not fear what tomorrow may hold. It holds enough to keep you busy, but no more than you can handle.

If you're a young adult going through a life transition, you may be facing conflicting decisions and emotions. Rather than idle in confusion, worrying and fretting, perhaps you would benefit from counsel. As a therapist and life coach, I am available to listen and to offer an objective perspective as well as much needed support. Let's talk one-on-one about how my coaching and therapy practice can serve you. I can be reached at my Uptown New Orleans office at 504-481-8997.

Dr. Eileen Wynne