For those that the above is a challenge for, this post is a small contribution towards this challenge. To start, I'm breaking apart the analysis of the challenge into four parts:
1. Interests - everyone has interests - whether this is gardening, cooking, thinking, hanging out with people, drawing ability, singing, etc. Many people have multiple interests.
2. Aptitudes - as well as interests, many people have middle to high aptitudes - meaning potential ability, in a myriad variety of fields. The first challenge is to find the intersect between the various interests you have, and supporting these interests with the aptitudes that either you know you have, or by uncovering the aptitudes you have. Luckily, this can be done fairly easily.
3. Skills - once an intersect between the two above has been discovered (or a multitude of intersects - again, people are usually have multiple interests, and also have multiple potential abilities) then you decide on a path to develop one set of abilities, into skills, where this intersects your interests.
A couple of examples.
A woman I know has a deep interests in writing and the arts. She writes a lot (for herself, not really for consumption), and loves seeing plays, reading books. However, even given her deep love of creativity, she is almost painfully shy.
As one of her abilities, she is very detail oriented.
So, this was her choice of intersection - she needed a lot of time for writing and the arts - but at the same time, knew her skills to be detail-oriented and solitary.
She became an accountant, part-time, and ended up being an accountant for various non-profit and art agencies over the years. A lot of small organizations don't have a need for a full-time bookkeeper, and so part-time suited the friend, and her various employers - perfectly.
Accounting wasn't her "deep and abiding" passion, but she does like (emphasize like) the work, and working with numbers. So it ended up being a good compromise for her. A good intersect between what she loves (time for writing and the arts), with her abilities (left alone to do detail work).
My own life would be another example. My main interests are spirituality, poetry, analysis, and helping people, with a slight technical bent.. Integral spiritual counseling would most likely be the "ideal" profession of mine - but this doesn't really pay well, unless you are a phenom of some sort, which I'm not!
(My degree was in philosophy, and emphasized eastern philosophy,
phenomenology, and the philosphy of physics, with a minor in
psychology.. )Now, my degree wasn't really worth the paper it was printed on, in the "real world". So I struggled for quite awhile, finding an occupation that I would make decent money, and that I liked (again, I didn't HAVE to love it - but I needed to like it, feel like I was constantly learning, growing, etc)
I ended up at a small tech company, where I wear many hats. Product design, customer service, technical presentations, and both writing training material and actually training in company products.
And I like what I do, and have both some funds and time to spend on my passions (which would include this).
The big point here is, there really were a lot of possible ways I could have gone that I would have liked (again, not necessarily loved). Teaching, counseling, technical - I wouldn't have been the king in these fields, but I would be competent. And there are many possible ways that most people can go.
4. Develop the skills, and then put yourself out/talk to the market.
This is the last thing - and for me is one of the weakest areas, but it has to be done.
That's it for now, at least from this limited perspective. I'll give references later on to people who have more mastered this area...
