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Finding Your Dream Job
By James | February 13, 2008
I am not going to tell you how to obtain your dream job (yet). We are going to find out what your dream job is. If your going to set goals in life, make sure you actually want to achieve them. Remember that it is a job no matter what and you must work to get paid. I am assuming you don’t have inherited wealth, popularity, luck, or earn money illegally. Basically, this dream job should be something that you can achieve on your own if you are interested and motivated enough.
Many people associate a dream job with a career that has already worked for others: For example, a doctor, a high ranking military officer, or an astronaut. While these are highly successful jobs, they are neither creative nor specific. They are what I call “American Dream Jobs.” They follow the American dream that requires us to follow a work schedule where we get paid for the time we put in. Your dream job should reflect you. It should be specific to your interests, beliefs, morals, and standard of living. You create your dream job.
Take it one step at a time when creating your dream job. Shoot for something really amazing- something that you don’t think you could ever achieve. Remember that your dream job doesn’t exist yet, so you are not looking for it- you are creating it.
Here is a small activity you can do to find or create your dream job and ideal life. This may take some people a few hours or even days. Just take your time and think positive. For the sake of experience, let’s do this project together. I will list my personal and honest answers to give you some examples.
Start by forming a list of interests. Just write down the anything that comes to mind:
Philosophy, Religion,Cosmology, Evolution, Animals, Writing, Art, Music, Fantasy, Travel, Nature, Camping, Computers, Technology, Movies, Psychology, Cultures, Growth, Humor, Sociology, Discussions
Try to get down at least 20. If you can’t come up with 20 on your own, do some research to find out what is out there. There might be some very interesting things that you have not yet discovered. Here’s a good place to get some ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_basic_hobby_topics
Now, take a few minutes to imagine yourself in 10-20 years, working in your dream job. Even though you don’t yet know what it is, you can still picture what kind of person you are. Imagine yourself at the most wonderful moments of your job. Imagine multiple moments; vacations, meetings, and other high points of your life. If possible, try to keep it in a first person perspective. A third person perspective reflects what other people will think of you. Keep it first person, because this is all about you.
You will find that the vision of your future-self relates to what is very important to you. It will reflect your standards of living, your social status, and maybe even specific interests. For example, here is everything I pictured:
I am sitting in first class of an airplane, flying to another country. Am I on vacation? Am I heading to a big interview or meeting? I am sitting on my laptop, with my favorite beverage and listening to music. I am not stressed for time and I have no pressure. Wherever it is I am headed or whatever it is I am going to do is completely planned out- I know what will happen.
Now I am on a talk show, explaining to people what I do. Maybe it’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” or maybe it’s a less popular show. All I know is that I am sitting at a desk with the host, discussing my latest activities and what it is that I do.
Now I am sitting on the patio of my home (or a resort?) In front of me is a decent sized swimming pool. It’s a cool sunny day. I am enjoying something to drink while working on whatever it is I do. Kind of like that popular Ty Coughlin photo, except with more shade because I hate direct sunlight. Am I a writer? I am working on something and enjoying myself.
Finally, I am at a nice dinner meeting with my wife. We are dressed comfortably, not rich and snobby. The dinner meeting is more like a private club meeting or maybe even a family dinner, it’s nothing fancy. Maybe we are at the Olive Garden (mmm, breadsticks). It’s a big city next to the beach. There is lots of grass, trees, and sprinklers. Maybe Sydney? Miami?
In general, my overall life is not too high classed. The visions I have are the highest points of my life and may not be an everyday thing, even though I hope they are. I’m not extremely rich, but I also don’t have to worry about money or bills. I could easily take a 5 year break if I wanted to try something different. A lot of my money is donated [in person] to those less fortunate. I am not a celebrity, but I have enough friends and family to feel supported. My work is legit and ethical. I am providing value to people. I have no stress or pressure, yet events in my life are spontaneous and certainly not repetitive.
Write down some key characteristics from these fantasies:
Happy, Motivating, Secure, Safe, Comfortable, Stress-free, Locomotive, Unique, Social, Independent, Loved, Spontaneous
Now take the interests you listed before:
Philosophy, Religion,Cosmology, Evolution, Animals, Writing, Art, Music, Fantasy, Travel, Nature, Camping, Computers, Technology, Movies, Psychology, Cultures, Growth, Humor, Sociology, Discussions
Combine them the best you can with each other:
Philosophy + Religion + Cosmology + Discussions
Animals + Nature + Camping + Travel
Philosophy + Writing
Art + Music + Writing + Movies
Computers + Technology + Writing
Humor + Discussions + Sociology + Philosophy
That’s not even all I can come up with- there are tons!
Now the key to making money is to provide value to people. People will only pay money for things that they feel is valuable to them. Value requires a medium.
What interests allow you to produce something of value?
Writing
Art
Music
Discussions
Those four interests can provide an actual product for all of my other interests. I can write articles and books. I can create pictures, graphs, or sculptures. I can create music, podcasts, and other audio products. I can discuss, teach, give speeches, or counseling. I could even combine them all and host a radio or TV show.
Now use a little logic and creativity to build new and unique jobs by combining the interests with the characteristics of your fantasies using one of your mediums. How can you fit all of your fantasies with your interests and create value? If you can’t take an interest and fill it with all or most of your fantasy words, then that interest is probably not truly important to you. For example I listed Psychology and discussions. Being a Psychologist counselor is probably not very stress-free or comfortable and might not allow me to travel, which is very important to me.
Here are some jobs I created:
Write books or articles about philosophy, religion, and cosmology.
Become a screenplay writer for major companies.
Create a blog that has both writing and podcasts relating to camping, nature, or travel.
Write about your travels and experiences with other countries.
Keep creating jobs until you find a job that fits perfectly with your fantasies. For me, I am able to do all of the jobs listed above with a laptop while traveling around the world.
After finding your dream job, you will need to take the steps needed to obtain this job. I can tell you how to do that. If you liked this post, let me know and I will give my take on how you can take the steps to obtain the job.
Cheers.
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