My whole life I have been changing jobs and careers. For equally long I was convinced this was flash in the pan. I thought I cannot be serious enough to focus and commit to one thing. Every time there was a big challenge ahead of me I would give up as I didn’t think there was a point for putting any effort into it. At the end of the day I was supposed to change my mind and move on to a new thing.
I was seeking career advice everywhere, I was terrified I would never find a true passion, and even that I was really good at most things I done in my career life – I was lacking motivation and purpose.
I would then start to choose my careers as per what I think that would look cool to me and other people. That’s one of the very popular career decisions that you can read about – driven by my own image of myself. ‘Advertising & Marketing’ would sound very professional and creative to me. I would imagine myself well dressed and wealthy, being a queen of networking and new projects. The problem was finding myself in the middle of the room surrounded by strangers, as that would wake up anxiety issues. The automatic reaction was to feel resigned and sad, thinking that I am not good enough to do my job. The thing was I was missing two very important points:
- I was treating it as a proof of lacking the talent
- I wasn’t focusing on a real problem – people skills vs anxiety (you can have both and it’s ok!)
The turning point was when I started to think about my skill set. I encourage you to write a covering letter to yourself, describing your experience, things you are great at, things that you love doing. Once you are aware of your skills you can look for jobs and careers that match them, because people tend to be HAPPY when doing things, they are good at… – which is no news! Another thing is – you might be like me. You might be multi-potential! Which means that you are great in many things, your skillset is huge and you can succeed on many fields! Once you get bored, just look for another thing that you love doing.
When changing jobs ask yourself what you are good at and what would make you feel fulfilled and accomplished.
What’s the best way of using your potential?
Love,
Karo
