Change the question What do you want to be when you grow up
[Music]
what do you want to be
when you grow up a question that most of
us
are asked multiple times throughout our
lives
but how do we answer the question notice
the question itself
is not what do you want to do but what
do you want to be
and that question implies that we
integrate
a part of ourselves into our work
now that makes sense because on average
a person spends over 100
000 hours of their lifetime working
therefore that quality of our work
experience
has a direct impact on the quality of
our over
lying life experience now that makes it
a little bit disheartening to hear the
fact that
70 percent of people are not engaged
in their work according to the gallup
organization
this is actually the case worldwide
and not only that 70 percent of people
are not
engaged in their work but many of them
are also unsatisfied and unfulfilled
with the work that they’re doing now i
personally feel
very lucky to have found a career path
that aligns with my strengths
and my talents but i can personally
relate
to having experienced that overwhelming
sense of
dissatisfaction with my own work
i can think about one of the times that
i was at my absolute lowest
it was a friday afternoon at five
o’clock and i was walking out of work
so relieved to be heading into the
weekend i walked through the parking lot
got in my car and started driving before
i had even completely
exited the parking lot i was hit with an
overwhelming amount of dread
just knowing that i would have to drive
back into that parking lot
and go into work on monday morning
i absolutely hated
my job i remember asking myself how did
i let this happen
how did i get here now as i mentioned
a lot has changed since then for the
last decade i’ve been teaching
and coaching helping others to develop a
career path
that they love i’m a master certified
executive coach
and a business professor so what changed
what shifted specifically
what i changed was my own career
narrative or my career script
instead of focusing on what i thought i
wanted to be
when i grew up i started focusing on
what my values were what was most
important to me
and the impact that i wanted to make
what if we all shifted our mindset
and instead of focusing on trying to fit
ourselves
into a career or into a job
we found a path that fit us
this takes a very radical perspective
shift
in how we think about work and how we
think about
doing those things that matter to us the
most
now in doing this research i’ve come
across a number of quotes
that have had a big impact on me but one
stands out specifically
and this is a quote by ralph waldo
emerson
the quote is do not go where the path
may lead
go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail now as it turns out
he was on to something with this making
your own path
and leaving a trail
according to dell technologies and the
institute for the future
up to 85 percent of jobs
that will exist just 10 years from now
have never
even been invented yet now that’s a
pretty big challenge for all of us
trying to prepare for a job
that might not even exist yet
for a college student who’s entering
into a four-year degree program
it might not even be possible for them
to enter into that program and acquire
every single skill that the industry is
going to need by the time they graduate
just four years later
another example how many students back
in 2017
started down a path that would fully
prepare them to become
blockchain engineers yet between 2017
and 2020 the demand for blockchain
engineers grew by over 400 percent
according to hired a company that
sources and recruits
technology candidates so hopefully we’re
getting at the why here why this is so
important but let’s shift gears and talk
about the how
what can we actually do with this
information
specifically we can focus on becoming
lifelong learners and developing
a consistent and disciplined practice
of assessing our vocation and our values
now unfortunately you can’t just program
a computer
or take an assessment to give you the
answer to this important question
or use that very famous harry potter
sorting hat
although that would be pretty cool
instead we need to do this important
internal work
we need to assess our passions and then
we need to design
a path that meets our needs on multiple
levels allowing us to each create
our own career script
now this narrative or this script is
uniquely
personal to each one of us but it’s so
important that we learn
to not just follow it to the letter
like any creative process or drafting
process
it’s going to be a little bit messy so
we need to embrace that messiness
we need to own it and we need to
especially make sure that we never
let someone else write it for us
when we do this work and we take this
ownership
we become authentic career leaders
in our own lives and becoming an
authentic career leader in your own life
this puts you in the driver’s seat of
your career
by assessing your strengths and your
passions
and designing and creating a career path
that fits into your life in a meaningful
way
so let’s break down vocation and values
the first step in this very important
process
is to think about a vocation
instead of a job a vocation
is an answer to a call from beyond
ourselves
it’s an invitation to use our talents
and to use our gifts
to make the world a better place and we
do this through our service
through our creativity and through our
leadership
the second step in this important
process is to assess
our values now fulfillment in work
comes when those work and life values
that are most
important to us are met through our work
so it’s critical that the organizations
we
choose to work for share at least
the most important of those values
otherwise what we end up experiencing
is that internal sense of conflict and
turmoil
and general feeling that we just cannot
be ourselves
when we’re at work so what are values
simply values are the things that we
each find to be
the most valuable or desirable
and they form the basis for how we make
decisions
about what we’re willing to do or not do
and each of us has our own unique system
of these values
and it forms the lens that we look
through to determine how we feel about
our work
and how we feel about the impact that
that work has
on society so all right
i know that this takes reflection
this takes time but i found that there
are three
questions we can ask ourselves to
determine if we’re living our vocation
and our values question number one
does your work help you to feel more
alive
question number two does your work allow
you to create
value for yourself and for other people
and question number three are you doing
the things
that matter to you if you can answer yes
to these three questions and
make a living congratulations you have
hit the career jackpot
because jobs and work they’re going to
continue to evolve
the speed of change is only accelerating
so we need to look at learning as a
lifelong
process not just something that happens
between that age of 5
and 22 we need to create
and embrace every opportunity we can for
project
based learning and training that helps
us to develop
new skills reskilling and upskilling
that we’re hearing
so much about right now it’s not
just about developing the latest high
tech skills
it’s all about becoming multi-faceted
and multi-dimensional and it’s just as
important
to focus on acquiring those
interpersonal skills
those skills that will help you to
weather whatever changes or shifts
end up coming your way as you think
about the future
think about how can you become a better
collaborator
a critical thinker a stronger
communicator
and a powerful positive leader this
mindset
is all about continuous learning
it’s all about adopting that beginner’s
mind
in a beginner’s mind that’s being open
and
eager to learn new skills no matter
what your current level of expertise is
this is very well becoming our new
norm earned you norm of being open open
to new jobs
open to new industries and open to new
learning opportunities
so let’s change the question instead of
asking
what do you want to be when you grow up
let’s ask what mark do you want to leave
what impact do you want to have what
challenges
do you want to solve and how do you want
to live your vocation
through your values