Allies and Aptitudes: A Step by Step Guide to Choosing the Right Career

An entrepreneur? A chef? A doctor? What about a pilot? We have so many career options available to us that it may seem impossible to pick the right one.

Picking careers may feel like choosing one flavor of ice cream from hundreds and having to stick with that flavor for the rest of our lives. How can we just pick one? However, unlike ice cream, our careers taste sweeter the more we taste them. Because of this, by simply picking a career and sticking with it, we will have accomplished the first and greatest challenge to becoming professionals. But, how do we go about choosing a career? Furthermore, how will we know that the careers we pick will fit us in the future? This step by step guide will help you to answer these questions.

Step 1: Understand who you want to become in the future.

We often know exactly who we want to become as kids. However, we tend to lose sight of this as grow.

Before we can understand what we should do, we must learn who we want to become. By this, I do not mean we should know what professional label to call ourselves but, rather, we should understand what characteristics we want to embody. You can call these characteristics your “inner-hero”. Do you want to become confident? reliable? wise? These characteristics can not only shed light on what matters to us in life, but it can also help us determine which path to choose.

• Practical practices: Write a list of up to ten characteristics that you want to embody in the future. You can call this list your “Inner-Hero List”. If you are having trouble picking characteristics, think about some of the people you wanted to become when you were a child. Write down the characteristics that these people have in common. Afterwards, define what each of these characteristics means in your own words, and think of ways to embody these qualities every day (even if only a little).

Step 2: Identify your Aptitudes.

Both exploring and exploiting are healthy behaviors. However, if you spend too much or too little time doing either, you will not reap any benefits.

We tend to have skills that we naturally grasp and enjoy more than others. Are you creative? Do you find yourself reading about science in your off-time? Can you make friends easily? We can call the skills that we gravitate toward our Aptitudes. If you do not have a full grasp of your aptitudes (don’t worry, I struggled with this as well), you can learn about them by exploring new skills. However, if you can confidently determine your aptitudes, you will likely gain more from exploiting what you know in order to become your best self. (If you would like more info on exploring vs exploiting, I discuss it in greater detail in this article)

• Practical practices: Write a quick list of skills that you can do better than others. You can call this your “Aptitude” list. Do any of these skills help you to become your “inner-hero”? Now write a list of skills that you struggle with, but you want to improve. Can any of the skills in your “Aptitude” list help you improve these?

Step 3: Identify your Allies.

It is important to surround yourself with people that will not only support you but also tell you the truth.

Finding the right career by yourself can often cause considerable stress and confusion. Thankfully, other people can help you organize your thoughts. Seek feedback from people whom you trust to tell you the truth. These people can help you determine which path fits you best. However, keep in mind that these people cannot make the final decision for you.

If you firmly believe that you need to work towards a certain career, then people who tell you otherwise will only hold you back. When you do find a career path, the people who help you achieve your goals will become your allies. You must surround yourself with these people in order to become your best self.

• Practical practices: What people can you trust to tell you the truth? How can you go about asking these people for advice on what career you should choose? What people will help you when you start working toward your goals. What people will hold you back from your goals? How can you surround yourself with the people that will help you and let go of the people that will hold you back?

Step 4: Identify a specialty.

Investing your time and energy into a specialty can help you excel faster.

Building a career takes an extensive amount of time and energy. In order to get where you want to go, you will have to practice nearly every day. Therefore, by picking one skill to practice daily, you can quickly outperform everyone in that skill. You can call this skill your specialty. Now, this does not mean that you have to let go of other aptitudes that you love.

If you build a solid foundation with one skill (e.g. experience, finances, references, etc.) you will have the ability to comfortably expand to other skillsets in the future. However, if you try to juggle multiple aptitudes, you will invest much time, money, and energy without gaining much in return. This can cause a severe amount of stress in your life, especially when you need to pay the bills. Therefore, by doubling-down on one skill, you can create a platform that allows you to expand your career in the direction you want to go.

• Practical practices: From your list of aptitudes, choose an aptitude to double-down on that answers the following questions:

1. Can this aptitude support you financially?

2. Will working on this skill help you become your inner-hero?

3. Do you enjoy working on this skill?

4. Will you still enjoy this skill if you practiced it daily for years?

5. If you answered “yes” to all the above questions for two or more skills, is there a way you could combine these aptitudes into one skillset?

Step 5: Identify steps to turn that aptitude into a career.

Many obstacles lie ahead of you in your career but taking steps to overcome them will help you earn your freedom.

Now that you understand what you can specialize in, you can, finally, figure out how to turn that into a career. Although you will not have a perfect understanding of what it takes to build your career, identifying potential steps and obstacles can, at least, help you get started. When you start taking these steps, make sure to look towards your “inner-hero” and determine if they will take you closer to that goal. If they take you away from that goal, you must reevaluate your goals and find a way to get back on track.

• Practical practices: What is something you can do today that will help you start your career? Can you find a way to practice your specialty every day? What are some obstacles that you will likely face when starting your career? What can you do to overcome these obstacles? How will you evaluate your efforts so you know that you are making progress? What will you do if you are not going in the right direction?

Congratulations! You now have both a meaningful goal and a starting point to build a great career. By establishing these points, you have overcome the greatest obstacle in choosing a career.

Do not worry if your goals seem imperfect now. Over time you will hone them until you have a fuller understanding of your purpose. For now, the most important action you can take is to start practicing. The more you practice, the more you will learn about your skills. From this experience, you can perfect your craft and create a career that is right for you.

-Yak

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