A Career Crafted from Seeds in Your Life

Your Life Story Already Contains Seeds Of A Career You Will Love
“If you’re not the hero of your talent story, you simply become a player in one you didn’t choose.”—Jay Perry

You’re already the hero of your talent story, even if you don’t yet believe it. The story of your life holds clues to your talents and a career you’ll love. While you may see mostly challenges and maybe even failures as you look at your life, when you take time to reflect you’ll realize how abundant with career choice potential your life story is.

Perhaps, like many of my clients, you’ve struggled with ADHD or dyslexia and the challenges they bring. The stress of such struggles often blinds you to your successes, causing you to focus solely on your weaknesses and leaving you afraid to pursue a new career.

Or your challenge may be more of a physical nature that causes you to be uncertain about your career options. My client, Rosa, was a 71 year-old emergency room (ER) nurse who loved her work and didn’t want to retire, but she could no longer perform the rigorous physical labor her ER nursing career required. Rosa wanted help channeling her passion for nursing into something new that let her draw on her substantial experience while honoring her need for less physical rigor.

Together, we crafted a strategy that helped her gain valuable insights into the patterns woven into her life story and discern viable options that were open to her as a highly experienced nurse.

Discover Career Options You Never Knew Existed

Rosa was ultimately delighted to discover the field of telemedicine, where nurses and doctors offer basic recommendations to patients on the phone or online. She now works from the comfort of her own home as a telemedicine nurse drawing on her tremendous amount of hands-on medical experience.

Technology is but one option that allows employers to offer more flexible working arrangements and remote work positions, not only for seniors but for younger people who have physical or other disabilities that prohibit them from a more traditional position in their profession.

So take heart. If you feel discouraged by your challenges, there are several important developments that might be the solution to a new career you’ll love. They include:

Technological developments:Today our world is filled with new techniques, discoveries, and technologies that can give you new capabilities if you understand them. In a world of constantly evolving apps and web services, it may be possible to truly wow an employer, client, or potential employer by refreshing your knowledge and periodically looking for new tools that let you do a job you love in a different way than you originally envisioned.

Job market evolutions: New types of jobs are constantly being created to replace or alter existing ones – perhaps including yours. Salaries and work culture change. These all lead to demand for new skills that can give you an edge if you acquire them.

Check out https://www.MyNextMove.org, an excellent free resource with lots of data for learning about new job market trends and projections. As you pull together all your interests, patterns, and strengths from your life story, you will be able to discern a career you’ll love and then seek out resources that will help you assess how your skills and knowledge measure up to those of your target career field. Being able to tell employers that you’re current on the latest techniques and technology, or that you have a skill that can give them a competitive edge, is a definite asset on résumés, cover letters, and in interviews.

Government policy changes: For example, Rosa discovered that while telemedicine positions were quite rare ten years ago, with rising costs of healthcare and stricter government requirements which compel insurance companies to offer more to their customers, many insurance companies now hire nurses to speak with customers by phone to provide more cost-effective and accessible health and medical advice. You too may discover a policy change that benefits you in your particular choice of career.

For more information about resources – and to be notified when my book Happiness +Passion + Purpose is available – you can join my email list here. www.razcoaching.com/newsletter

Claim Your Role As Your Life Hero

Take time to reflect on your own life story. Find a quiet place to sit with a pen and notebook, and write your story. You can do this in several sessions over a period of time.

What patterns do you notice? What opportunities can you find to reframe something you’ve believed is negative into a positive? What strengths and interests have you developed from your history?

You’re in charge of telling your unique story in a way that best serves you. Many of us criticize ourselves relentlessly for the choices we’ve made and the paths we’ve taken. But if you could tell your story any way you want, free from the opinions of other people, what would you choose to tell? Claim your role as hero of your own talent story, and find out.