Envisioning and Embodying Your Future Career

When it comes to your career, are you asking yourself “What’s next?” This seems to be a common issue amongst many of the career coaching clients in my practice. My invitation to those of you looking for a future career is to earnestly check in with yourself and see what feels right. Really right, so much so that your body feels great about moving towards this new pursuit, even if the transformation takes training, time, money, or significant life changes. As my friend Gail puts it, “yeah, you want it to feel so great that you kind of feel your socks go up and down!” And, as you consider your future, you may want to see what juicy information your past may have for you.

When I was about seven years old, I hoped that when I grew up, I would spend most of my time writing and creatively helping people explore and express themselves. Yes, I really envisioned and longed for this future at age seven – a time when I was supremely sheltered from societal restrictions and constrictions.

A special treat for me was to take scrap notepad paper from my father’s office, staple a few pages of it together, and then imagine, write, and illustrate simple storybooks. I particularly recall one storybook I wrote in first grade, about a girl named Pam who arrives from Mexico speaking only Spanish. At first, all of the students in her elementary school tease her, but then one classmate befriends her and helps her to learn English. Maybe I’ll have to write something else to win the Pulitzer Prize, but that story made me feel proud. So proud that I would dash around the house waving the little storybook and reading it aloud in short staccato shushes.

From about second through fifth grade, I sketched out little assignments for my brother to complete – with instructions like, “Draw a rectangle using your favorite color” or “Make a picture showing what you would you do if your best friend got sick.” Sometimes, I gave him math problems, and drew elaborate shapes for him to count. Observing him as he thought about his responses delighted me, and my whole body was abuzz with amusement when we would talk about his answers.

I probably drove my teachers crazy asking for carbon dittoes so I could make his assignments more realistic. Maybe you, too, are part of the pre-Xerox generation whose assignments were copied through that chemical-laden, purple-ink transfer process? Did you, too, sniff the dittoes right after they had been freshly run, and get a little ‘high’ on the smell? If so, then you know the intensity of getting to make my own dittoes to take home. The teacher would let me run about five copies, and I loved hand-cranking the machine and feeling the moist pages that emerged.

Over time, I began to lose touch with my loves of writing and creative expression. In little ways, societal messages chipped away at my dreams. For example, in third grade, I remember drawing an ‘instant dressing machine’ that would choose my clothes for me and dress me while brushing my teeth. How easily mornings would flow if that idea became reality! Yet, unfortunately, my teachers and parents told my idea was “outlandish, unrealistic and impractical.” I I moved my attention on the seemingly ‘proper’ ways to do things.

What about you? What types of messages did you about the activities you enjoyed? Do any of these sound familiar?

• “Well, that won’t work….”
• “No, you can’t do it that way….”
• “That’s not realistic…”

And, as you grew older, perhaps those messages changed focus, but still had that negative tone…

• “You’ll never make any money doing that!”
• “Is that any way to make a respectable living?”
• “C’mon, be more realistic!”

Fortunately, in the past three years, I have consciously reawakened the essence of my original loves of writing and creativity. Those passions need a great deal of nurturing, so that the fears of being teased and discouraged can be replaced by the inner sensations of aliveness those passions stimulate in my body, mind, and spirit.

Recently, a number of career coaching clients have said to me, “I really want to do something I’m passionate about. But how do I figure out my passions?” For these clients, doing what society seemingly expects of them no longer brings career satisfaction. If you, too, have reached that point in your career, here are some suggestions for discovering – and often recovering – your passions:

Recall what you loved in your childhood
Just as I loved writing and making those zany assignments, you, too, probably had at least one or two things that you enjoyed doing as a child. In their book, Discovering Your Career in Business, business psychologists Tim Butler and Jim Waldroop contend (perhaps counterintuitively) that over time, our skills change, but our interests do not. So, get nostalgic, and visualize the activities you loved to do as a kid. To really know if these childhood loves might have some energy for you in present time, notice how your body feels when you think about those activities. Check in and see how you feel. Is it positive? If so, can you then think of a similar activity you might do in your current life? If you loved playing baseball as a kid, what baseball-related career might make you happy? If you adored buying new fish for your aquarium, what aquatic future might you create for yourself? What sensations come up when you imagine the possibilities? If they feel good – that’s generally a positive sign!

Consider your proudest accomplishments
As you start to search out your passions, they may be the activities that have made you feel the proudest. What are you especially proud of? Winning a model-building contest? Raising your children? Preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 60 people? What does that tell you about how you like to spend your time? Feel what pride feels like in your body when you recall these accomplishments. And, if you would like to be proud of yourself in your future career, check out how possible new careers make you feel – are the feelings similar to those of pride?

Look at how you like to spend your free time
Yes, people really do turn hobbies into vocations! For example, do you spend your free time traveling to foreign countries? Bring to mind a recent trip and experience the sensations…recalling the tastes, smells, sights, sounds, and emotions of that time. How do you feel? How might you do with travel writing or running an import-export business? If you like to research Civil War battles, what do you notice about your physical sensations in the midst of your reading? Is a career in history in store for you? Check in with your body – is the vibe positive or not? Keep attending for clues from your gut!

Keep a clipping file
Perhaps these first three ideas seem only mildly appealing to you. Another approach to uncovering your passion is to keep a clipping file. Get a manila file and during a one- to two-week period, notice articles, images, and sayings that catch your eye. You need not know why they are grabbing your attention….just clip or cut out the article or image and put it in your file…then forget about it. Set a deadline for yourself, say 2 to 4 weeks later, and then look at what you have collected. What patterns emerge? What might the clippings tell you about a future that feels right for you? Discussing the clippings with a friend may help you gain new insights, and as those arise, again, check in with your body.