Page 47 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Creating Your Career Fingerprint

If you haven’t already seen a clear picture of
your authentic calling, the following exercise
will give important clues to assist you in
clarifying your vision.

This exercise assesses how your gifts fit into the real world of jobs.
You may believe that your career needs to be bold, heroic, or a status sym-
bol to the rest of the world. This is not the case, because when you
come upon the right career for you at this time in your life, you will feel
fantastic no matter how the world evaluates your occupation. When
you are expressing something from deep inside of you through the
work you choose to do, you are making a maximum contribution both
to yourself and to the world. You will be living the life you are meant
to live in your own quiet way. You’ll be proud of yourself. You will know
you are magnificent! We have no time to waste, so let’s begin.

1. Consider the list of occupations that is provided in the next
few pages of this chapter. Look at every occupation from A
to Z. There are lots of entries in the list, so you might want
to try this exercise in two or three sittings.
2. Circle any entry (for example, dog shampooer, event planner,
filmmaker, lawyer, pediatrician, software programmer, tech-
nician, vice president, Web designer) that you feel would
allow you to express your gifts. The assumption here is that
you already have all the right amount of money, education,
time, familial support, location, and physical and mental abil-
ity to actually try that role for a short time. In other words, just
for the sake of this exercise, you have no limitations.
3. Next, go through the occupations list again and check only
those listings you would be willing to try for a whole year,
again with the assumption that you are completely
equipped to do them. Place a check by those job titles,
whether they are circled or not.
4. Finally, pick 10 of these job titles that are both circled and
checked.

At the end of this list, you’ll have space to write down your 10 selec-
tions. Go for it!

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