The first step to owning who you are is knowing who you are. There is no better feeling than knowing what you want, what’s important to you, and what values are necessary for you to follow in your life – and then aligning your life to exactly that. This can be easier said than done for many of us and engaging in the process of career counselling can help you embark on a journey of self-reflection and self-awareness.
My passion for career development has been an evolving love. Something that gets stronger the more I learn about it, the more I develop new skills, and the more I work with new clients and gain so much insight from them. The more I am grounded in the work, the more I love it. A large part of the work of a Career Development Practitioner is to help clients figure out who they are, what’s important to them, what their long-term goals are, and then how they can step into that light to have the career they long for.
The biggest battle is helping clients believe that they can take charge of their lives, take risks, and take steps to turn their passions into dream careers.
You may resonate with this idea yourself. For many of us, we know what fuels us. What we love. What we are passionate about. What's more difficult is aligning our careers to those things and following them.
The things that excite you are not random. They are connected to your purpose. Follow them. - Anonymous
Many of us suffer from thinking that what we love can’t translate into our vocation for a number of reasons: it’s not easy to find a job in that field, that work won’t make us enough money to survive and thrive, others won’t approve of our career choices as they may be more uncertain or risky. We tell ourselves that the safest road may be the best one. While this may be true at times in our lives depending on our circumstances, adopting this belief all the time can be dangerous. Playing it safe may get you to the stable place where you need to be for the time being but what happens when you get there and you’re not fulfilled? What happens when you realize that it’s still not enough?
While some of our career aspirations may be hard to reach, it doesn’t mean we can’t reach them. While there are certain careers out there that are very competitive and may feel like a one in a thousand or even a one in a million shot, there is still that one that is making it. And why can’t that one be you?
Have you ever felt like you were meant for more? That you were capable of doing more and being more? If you have those feelings, embrace them. Don’t ignore them. We can gain so much insight from our gut feelings and our intuition. It can guide us along a new path that could lead us to our purpose here and the place we are meant to be.
I’m here to tell you that it’s good to take risks, make a daring choice, and be brave in starting a new adventure. You don’t always have to play it safe. Live your life boldly.
Our career journeys are compiled of a series of choices and decisions. I am not a believer in right and wrong choices. I believe that we make a choice that’s best for us at the time and we gain critical information and insight from that decision. We may learn this is great and feels aligned to our purpose or we may learn that this isn’t right for us. Maybe we will fail from that choice we made. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we have learned something. We have gained information to make a more informed choice that’s better for us next time. We have taken a step forward and by taking that step, we may have more confidence in what our next step should be.
Life is about learning and growing. Our careers are no different.
I work with many clients who feel stuck in the career exploration process so much so that they aren’t willing to take a step forward in any capacity because they don’t want to choose the “wrong” career to pursue. It’s hard to know what the “right” or “wrong” career may be for us if we’re not willing to take a step. The reality is that there are many choices that could be right for you, not just one. On average, we have 7 different careers in our lifetime. People are not staying in one job or one career for their entire lives. Things are changing.
When you have made a series of choices in your career, and you have learned what you like and what you don’t, where your skills lie, what causes you are passionate about, where you want to focus your time, what you want your work to look like, what fuels your soul, what gives you freedom, and most of all what gives you that fire and that confidence, then you have found your light. And when you find that light, it’s time to step into it and own it. Let the warmth of it fill you up and savour the moment. Because you deserve it. You have worked hard to get here and if you’re like me, you have worked a number of different jobs to get to this point and they have all had their ups and downs as every job that you pour yourself into likely does.
I’m here to tell you that there is absolutely no better feeling than stepping into your light. Be proud of yourself, of your choices and decisions, of how you have learned and grown, and what you now know about yourself, your purpose, and your journey. I know you can get to this point - where you have found out where you want to be, when your career journey leads you to that right dream position, and when you can be 100% confident that you are aligned with your purpose.
I hope you feel inspired to delve headfirst into the reflective process of career exploration so that one day you can look back on your life and feel a sense of true fulfillment and pride in your own career journey!
I believe in you and I am always here for you.
Sabrina
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