If You Want a Dream Career, Ask These 3 Questions
Your life is your career.
If you’re interested in building a dream career, you’ve likely thought about how long your career lasts.
Our work plays such a significant role in the quality of our lives.
Many of us only work because we need the money.
Neither is work a way to earn money or respect; if you think it is, people have failed you.
No, work is a choice. You don’t do it because you have to; you do it because you want to contribute to your community. That’s what work is. But here’s the challenge:
In today’s world, you can have almost every career.
That’s not an opportunity. It’s a problem.
Because all entry barriers have been removed, you face much more competition. Until a decade ago, you couldn’t enter any industry you wanted. You needed to be at the right place, at the right time, and you needed to meet the right people.
But now, you can almost be anything or do anything to make a living. That’s why your career success depends on making the right decisions early on. You want to pick a career that gives you a good outlook.
The last thing you want to become is an unfulfilled career hopper who likes everything and picks a different career every two years. Changing jobs is excellent. But it’s also great to persevere and make an impact. You can’t do that in a few years.
That’s why you want to make a wise decision about what kind of career you pursue.
“How do I know what my dream career is?”
In Managing Oneself, a booklet, Drucker shares several questions that every professional should ask themselves.
Here they are:
1. What are my strengths?
“First and foremost, concentrate on your strengths. Put yourself where your strengths can produce results.” — Peter Drucker.
Somehow, many professionals still ignore this piece of advice. They believe they can improve their weaknesses. That’s just a false idea that people want you to consider.
Look, business is all about competition — even within organizations. So when your superiors tell you to focus on improving your weaknesses, they keep you at a distance. They know damned well that you won’t be a threat.
Just know you need strength to climb, not weakness. So, figure out your strengths and then focus on improving them.
2. How do I perform?
“Amazingly, few people know how they get things done. Indeed, most of us do not even know that different people work and perform differently.” — Peter Drucker.
This is the most challenging question to answer.
When you find out how you perform, you will benefit from that for the REST of your life. So, what does Drucker mean by performing? It’s about plain results. In other words, How do I achieve results?
Think about these things: How do you get things done? How do you learn? Do you perform well under stress? Do you work well in large teams? Do you work better at a small company or a big one? How do you focus?
It’s important to know yourself on that level. You must find a combination of factors that make it possible for you to reach your full potential.
3. What are my values?
“To work in an organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one’s own condemns a person both to frustration and to nonperformance.” — Peter Drucker.
Some types of jobs just make you feel bad.
Just think about the kind of person you want to see in the mirror every morning.
When you answer these three questions, you will find your dream career. Also, remember that most people have created their careers. That means no one will hand it to you.
Try to think practically in your pursuit.
The only problem is that figuring out the answers takes time and focus.
Two things that most of us are not serious about. We waste a lot of our time on meaningless activities. And we can’t focus on one thing for more than two minutes. If we keep behaving like that, we will be miserable forever.
Remember, your life is your career. And if life is long, your job is long, too.
So take a few months, or even years, to improve your self-knowledge. You will benefit from it for the rest of your life.
Thank you for reading!
