Self-awareness is vital to get on correct career path

Your career is a type of a voyage – you board, you travel on a particular course and reach a destination. Quite a few people embark on their career journey wherein neither the course nor the destination is their own choosing. If you happen to be one of them and are not satisfied with the direction in which you are heading or the destination that you are ordained to go, you can always alter the course. However, that would necessitate getting into the cockpit or the driver’s seat and taking control of your career.

· You need to be aware of yourself: Imagine this… one fine morning, you dress up to go to work, but cannot find your wallet. It has cash, your driving licence and a credit card. You search for it all over the place, but in vain and conclude that your wallet has indeed been lost. Then you tap your hip pocket and find it there. Finding a new career course is just the same set of circumstances. You look around for it, but atypically and paradoxically, not where it lies – within you. You need to know that you have all the tools within yourself to get to know your inclinations, capabilities and mental space so that you can confront and banish the dark parts of yourself.

· You need to rake and delve reflectively: There is this general tendency to describe yourself on the basis of what you enumerate in your resume. Doing so means considering only the tip of the iceberg and settling for mediocrity when you were created for greatness. If you seek to actually know yourself, you will have to break up the earth in you to discover:

v Your strong points: Anything that you excel at and take delight in is your forte. You may discern the strengths of various people who are top performers alright, but are unable to do so in your own case. Your strong points have a very potent correlation with your metier; as a matter of fact, you perform only on the basis of them. Therefore, if you do not make full use of your strengths, you will never stand out. It is thus important to know what they are and where they lie; and get into a career that facilitates their optimum utilisation. You can do so by identifying work aspects that you excel at and that give you pleasure; that serve to stimulate and motivate you; and that come to you effortlessly and inherently.

v Your makeup: A concordant blend of your social, innate and expressive traits is what your makeup is. Going by this, people who are by nature gregarious, always enjoy the company of others and love to meet people. On the contrary, people who are born introvert, invariably feel happy and relaxed when left by themselves. Research has proved that there exists a straight connection between an individual’s makeup and career. If you are sociable, you will excel in functions that entail meeting people like front-office work in hotels, teaching, marketing, sales, public relations, human resource management and even law. And if you an introvert, you will be better off in functions that do not necessitate much public dealings; accounts, statistics, technical writing, etc. to name a few would be better career options.   

v Your principles and standards:  Anything that you regard as significant and worthy are your principles and standards. They vary from individual to individual and could possibly include issues like wealth, status, reputation and authority at one end of the spectrum to relatively imperceptible ones like esteem, peace and freedom at the other. However, they are all indicators of the work that will go well with you. For example, if you cherish accomplishment, any work that is ‘high-pressure’ will gel with you. Likewise, if you treasure helping others, professions like medicine and nursing will give you contentment. The bottom line, however, is to know what you stand for.  

v Your concerns & inclinations: Who does not you seek work that is exciting and fascinating? If interest is aroused in you, you will invariably excel at work. Take the example of Steven Spielberg, the noted American film director. Since childhood, he was interested in photography and though his classmates teased him, he stood on and moved on to become a legend in his own field. History is replete with similar examples; the stories of Ralph Lauren (apparel designer) and Walt Disney (animator) should serve to inspire anybody. Doing the work that appeals to you has an unending effect on your career and hence, you need to discover your fascinations to move ahead.

You simply cannot get away from yourself and decide to turn off the noise in your head. You need to know yourself well so that you can embark on a correct path.