Choosing the right career is a very important decision for everyone. One thing is for sure; your career choice will affect the rest of your life.
On the other hand, there are thousands of options to choose from which may make choosing a career quite a daunting endeavor. It is especially so if you want to choose a career that will last.
It certainly helps to have some advice that will help you choose a career you can engage in for decades to come. The following are some tips to help you out:
Evaluate Yourself
It’s hard to choose a career without knowing what you really want in the first place. The first step should be to assess yourself and what you want to do. If you want to choose a life-long career, it will involve learning and revealing as much about yourself as possible.
Therefore, you should make a list of your interests, values, characteristics, hobbies, passions, and any other qualities you possess. The good news is that there are many tools online to help you assess yourself.
Once you have a clear picture of your traits and aptitudes, it is much easier to settle on a career choice than if you were to choose blindly. Knowing yourself is the first step to freedom in choosing a career.
List Possible Occupations
Now that you know what you are capable of, another tip that will really help you decide on a career choice is to make a list of possible occupations. Since you simply cannot try every occupation, narrowing it down to a few that suit your character, education, aptitude, and personality will help substantially.
A list of ten to twenty possible occupations should be enough to give you room for exploration. There will undoubtedly be certain careers that appeal to you more than they appeal to others.
Find out as much as you can about each individual career on your list. Pretty soon, you should have the list narrowed down to five. Keep exploring the various careers until you settle on one you are sure you want to do in the future.
Make a Life Plan
A career is not your entire life and neither should it be. It is part of your life and hence a great tip is to make a life plan and find out which career would best suit it.
A life plan is a vision of what you would like the rest of your life to be. For example, if you want to engage in EMDR therapy, then the life plan should involve going to medical school. The more detailed the life plan, the better.
Every life plan will be unique as we all have different life experiences. However, having a clear vision for your life is the best way to choose a career that will match it.
Follow an Example
A great tip to use if you want to choose a career that will last is to follow the example of someone you greatly admire. Unless you grew up off the grid, most of us have someone who we hold in high esteem and would like to follow in their footsteps.
You don’t have to be a pioneer for you to have a fulfilling lifelong career. You can have a great career by simply following the path that others have trodden before you. That may be an athlete, scientist, or entrepreneur whom you have admired for some time.
You should be able to tell if a person has had a great career by talking to them or reading about them. If you think that you would like to follow in their footsteps, then it makes choosing a career much easier than venturing into the unknown.
Trust Your Instincts
You can do as much research as you want to choose a career that will last in the long run. However, in the end, it comes down to trusting your gut. We value our intelligence more than anything but your gut tends to know what you want before your head. It takes an enormous amount of courage to trust your instincts especially when your brain or other people are telling you otherwise.
The reason you should trust your instincts is that it is an innate intelligence that will be with you for the rest of your career. There is absolutely no substitute for following your heart. It is the best career advice you will ever hear. If it just doesn’t feel right don’t do it no matter the promise of compensation. Inner fulfillment is much more valuable than material gain in the long run.
Choosing a career that will last is a serious undertaking with lifelong repercussions. If you can use the tips above, then you should have a long career that fulfills you. You should always remember to trust your instincts as it will always lead you down the right path.