I had been trying to figure out what to post about first. There is so much I am interested in and so much to talk about under this blog but I figured I should start from the beginning and for me thats planning.
I should have a disclaimer though that I am not a professional, nor am I perfect. In fact I often am regretting not planning enough, but I figure writing about it will help me keep it on the mind. In my opinion the first step to planning your life is deciding what you want to do for a living so I am going to talk about that today.
To start planning for your career you need to figure out what kind of planner you are.
Some people like to go with the flow and that is fine, it isn’t my cup of tea, but to each their own. I like to have as much time spaced out and have a back up plan for everything that I can.
Once you’ve gotten an idea of what kind of planner you want to be then you can move on to deciding what you want.
Now this might sound like a self-help book saying it is all in your hands, it isn’t, but you can darn well act like it is. Fake it till you make it.
So ask yourself what do you want? Be honest don’t judge yourself for saying money or to be pretty, those are real things and you deserve the right to want them.
For me money was a big want, I have seen what you can do with money and the control it has. I want to help people and be in control of everything I can so it seemed like a no brainer to me.
Once you have an idea of your wants you need to think a little deeper, not Dr. Phil deep but deeper.
What are you really good at? Is math super easy for you? I am so jealous but that is great. If you can make the perfect crème brulee or macaroons, then awesome!
Everyone has talents or strengths in one thing or another you just have to sit down and think about it. Don’t act like your good at something because you like it. Those are two completely different things, you need to know what comes naturally to you without how much you enjoy it.
After you know what you want and what your good at, think about what you love. I love to talk, I am good at it and I want to talk so of course most of the plans I design put me talking.
When I started planning what I wanted my career to be I wrote all of these things down and then analyzed what I had.
- I want to make money, travel, and meet people.
- I am good at history, languages, and as mentioned above communicating.
- I love other cultures (hence allophiliac eh?), travel and helping people from afar.
From all of those aspects I found careers that checked as many boxes as possible.
In the end the PR/Integrated Communications industry was perfect. I can reach everything I want, it utilizes what I am good at and I get to do what I love.
It might not be easy to find your perfect career, you might have to pick the best one and build from there but the future is flexible.
On that note make sure you don’t completely toss out any of the other careers.
For example if you want to be an epidemiologist because it is almost the perfect career, then don’t ignore the career of being a doctor. It meets similar qualifications, but takes a little longer.
Take the classes needed to fit everything and then decide at the end what you want to do.
If PR ends up not working for me I am going to law school. If I hate law school I will be a translator, if I hate that then I will work for the CIA.
All of these are possible outcomes for my future that I have kept as ‘maybe’s because you never know what will happen. Just don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
I hope this helps you, not everyone will benefit from this method but it worked for me and I can only hope it’ll help others.
-Heather
