Your Professional Career

The proposition certainly is. There are many choices and many more people ready to give you their two cents on what they think you should do with the rest of your life.

Most importantly, there is you and whatever demons you may have about the issue.

Many of you, just like me have many interests, talents and passions. You may really, really like a lot of stuff and may be even better at a few others.

On the other hand, you may say that you have no clue whatsoever what your passion is, what makes you happy in the mornings and how to make money doing so.

In either case, my suggestion starts with putting any ideas about things you like in writing. Seeing things listed in a piece of paper gives them an objectivity they can’t sometimes accomplish when they are mingled together with a thousand other thoughts in your mind.

Try to follow some of the ideas described below:

1. Listen to your feelings and intuition. There is most likely a little nag somewhere in the right side of your brain (the side that controls your emotions) reminding you of that which you love the most.

Listen in silence and with patience and let that voice guide you.

3. After your list is done, use your imagination to come up with ways that you can make a living doing what makes you happy, passionate and at peace.

If you like cutting flowers and arranging them into vases for yourself and family, perhaps you can think about becoming a decorator, a landscaper or a business owner of a flower shop.

4. Find out what skills or talents you have that best help you to learn the crafts necessary to work, do or practice your passion. Use school and community career centers (most of which provide services for free) to find out how to create resumes, find internships, practice workshops and find support from people who have similar interests.

5. Practice, practice, practice. If your goal is to become a singer, you must take singing lessons and perform on a regular basis anywhere you can to perfect your craft and allow others to form an opinion on your abilities. The same applies if you want to become an accountant.

Find an internship in an accounting firm that is doing the kind of work that you are interested in. You may start by simply copying and filing pages upon pages but in the mean time, you are learning aspects of the job that you were not exposed to in school.

6. Determine what it will take to reach that professional goal. Research and study the possibilities. Education is the key to it all. If you’d like to become an actor, find the best acting schools in your city, get books on acting, voice and movement techniques, learn what it takes to go to auditions and get acting jobs, etc. The same will apply to every type of work you would ever want to do.

7. Determine what type of environment and lifestyle you would like to enjoy. Choose a lifestyle that best suits your personality and other interests in your life. Work slowly but steadily, in stages to reach the standard of living that you choose for yourself.

8. Write down your professional goals. Write as many as your imagination can create. Dream big, dream great and dream good. Life is full of blessings waiting for any one of us to grab them. Be one of those who take advantage of all the wonders in this earth. Have 1-year goal, 5-year goals, 10-year ones.

The sky is not the limit, the universe is and the universe is infinite and limitless.

The best case scenario would be to find work you love and that support you financially. There is no better time to take some risks, create your own career or devote most of your time to one than when you are young and have the stamina, energy and flexibility to create a business or a successful professional career.

And even if financially it is not your ultimate step, it is surely a step in the right direction.