5 Steps to Narrowing Down Your Interests
One of the most common questions I am asked is, “How do I narrow down my interests to figure out what I want to do?”
It is a great question because all of us have a lot of different things that we like to do or are interested in but we don’t know if that means that we’d want it to be a part of our career.
I know that I made a list that looked like the one to the left many times. I can’t tell you how many nights I sat up and thought, “maybe I’d like to be an interior designer…or maybe I’d like to be a host on MTV…or maybe….” In fact I think it is a common joke amongst my friends how many times I came up with different careers I wanted.
And low and behold the one I chose was the one where I get to play that same game with all of you!
Now before we jump into this, there is an important distinction between passion and purpose which I talk about here.
Here are five steps to help you narrow down your interests to help you figure out what type of career you should go into.
1. Determine your end goal – This is really important. Think about what you want your life to look like in 10 years. What kind of lifestyle do you want to have? Where do you want to be living? What do you want your days to look like?
2. Get clear on your priorities – Just like looking for a house to live in, it is important to be really clear on what is most important to you and what you can live with. Think about things like location of work, who you work with, how much money you want to make. What’s most important to you?
3. Try them on for size – You can talk about something until you are blue in the face but until you actually try it you won’t know for sure. Let’s say that one of your interests is photography. Offer to take photos of your friend’s kids. Or let’s say it is travel, plan a friend’s trip for them. Or start a travel blog. Just start doing something.
4. Determine where there is a need – Unfortunately, not everything we are interested in is a good business opportunity. If you want to start your own business or get hired somewhere, determine if there is a need in the marketplace for what your interest is. Start asking around if this would be something people would be interested in. Do some research on google to see what is out there.
5. It’s okay if you are not 100% sure - A lot of people end up not doing anything because they think that they need to be 100% sure of their decision. I don’t think that you are ever 100% sure of anything. I talk more about this point here.
Let me say that I see people paralyzed with fear all of the time. And one of the biggest fears is making the wrong decision. They think, “What if I quit my job or go to school or whatever it may be and I STILL don’t like what I am doing?” By going through the above steps you can get closer to figuring out what you really want to be doing.
Any questions or stories to share? Ask away, I love to help.
Tags: aha moment, career, career change, career reinvention, entrepreneur, escape from cubicle nation, how to change career, inspirational, job search, network marketing, personal branding, san francisco
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Suzannah Says
My mission is to inspire others to find what they were made for.
