My
Passion Lives...Where?
By
Karen Schaffer
As
our experience, challenges, interests and passions ebb
and flow, we are sometimes more engaged with our work
than at others. Though we've been taught that a typical
career path is a straight line up a ladder, it is actually
more organic and elastic. The periods of furious forward
momentum are tempered by the times we coast and the
times we take a charge of direction that puts us in
a whole different place than where we originally thought
we would be.
As
we continue to have experiences and learn more about
ourselves, new passions and interests emerge - and sometimes
in such an infantile state we can barely recognize them
as potential career paths. Meanwhile, we're stuck doing
something that we've outgrown, like a three-year old
in last year's clothing. The trick is balance - leaving
space for a new passion to grow and finding ways of
expressing itself through our skills and abilities,
while making our peace with our current work reality
however we may feel about it.
Tuning
in to where you are in your career development will
validate where you are now (especially if you're on
the downward dip of the cycle) and help you plan realistically
for your future career path. There are many stages along
the continuum, and the cycle is continual.
One
stage might be taking place at your current job. Are
you in the white hot heat of your current passionate
career? Or maybe you are having pangs that this job
that you've loved so much for the last decade may not
have the same zip that it used to. Or perhaps you've
just woken up to the fact you dislike what you do and
haven't got the first clue what to do about it.
Other
stages are about growth and movement. Have you recently
let go of a job or a career that you knew well for the
wide open Unknown? Or do you have a job that partially
fulfills your career passion buy still leaves something
to be desired? Or maybe you're hesitating on the brink
of choosing a new direction for your career path, but
you're unsure of how to know that you're making the
right decision.
But
it helps to know that things do progress career-wise.
For example, I know a formerly miserable CRM manager
who took a year to dig past the miserable and rediscover
her creative side. Not wanting to forgo her current
salary for this less-than-tangible creative side, she
did her job as usual (with a lot less frustration now
that she realized what was missing) and encouraged her
creativity in other areas. The answer finally popped
for her - journalism - and as a first step to realizing
her passion, she took a job in communications.
II
also know an entrepreneur who left his furniture business
and found himself in the limbo of "What next?".
He tried working at someone else's furniture business,
but he realized that the while he knew a lot about furniture,
it wasn't his passion. He was passionate about environmentally-friendly
design, but the furniture business was too fickle in
its trends and didn't let him explore his passion in
earnest. Still, he changed his career trajectory by
taking courses, forging new colleague networks, and
considering career applications as an energy inspector
or "green" home design consultant.
Finally,
I know a divorcee cast off from her role in the family
business. While spending a year adrift and wondering
what to do next, one of the worst of tragedies happened
- she loses a child. But rather than giving up on it
all, instead she finds her passion - helping others
deal with loss.
Discovering
your deeper passions and interests is a more subtle
process that we rarely acknowledge. That's because it's
an unfolding of ourselves during the experience of our
life. That unfolding can't just come from thinking about
it academically. You have to live it by giving yourself
over to the experience of waking up, separating yourself
from what you know, feeling lost, and then finding shore
again. If you think back to the major transitions in
your life, you'll know that it meant taking risks and
guesses about who you are and what you might like, and
then adjusting the plan as you began to experience the
results of your decision.
Our
passions live quietly inside us, waiting for our life
experiences to call them into existence and for us to
give them attention to help them to grow. They wait
patiently until we have the courage to follow them more
deeply. And never should you doubt that you have enough
passion and interest to build multiple careers around
- all you need to do is create a nurturing environment
that allows these passions to surface safely.
Next
month: New measures to track your career exploration.
If
you are interested in attending a Teleseminar class
run by Karen Schaffer on "The Secrets of
Successful Career Exploration," click
here
to learn more.
-
Karen Schaffer is the Senior Career Consulting Associate
at IQ PARTNERS Inc. Her new book, The Complete
Book of Resumes, is available at IQ PARTNERS' front
desk or on Amazon.ca.
[full
bio...]
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IQ
Insight is published by IQ
PARTNERS Inc.
IQ
PARTNERS helps intelligent companies hire better,
hire less and retain more. Our services include
Executive Search & Recruitment, Qualification
& Assessment, Employee Retention, Career
Management and Contract HR Services. We specialize
in Marketing, Communications, Media, Technology,
Legal and Financial Services, and operate at
the mid-to-senior management level. IQ PARTNERS
has offices in Toronto and Ottawa, and internationally
via the Aravati
Global Search Network.
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