Self-reflection Questions to Identify the Career You Love

Picture yourself waking up excited and happy, despite all that is happening; joy in your heart tugs at your soul to get up and shine bright - because of a meaningful task or job that you're going to do today. What does that task or job feel like?

Do you picture yourself waking up to make art, learning about new kinds of coffee, heading into a wood carving studio, learning about artificial intelligence or the multiverse or data? Or fitness instruction or meeting new people? What is it that lights you up? What do you love? 

That's what we are asking you to ask yourself. What does a meaningful career mean to you? Most people live their lives not knowing. So we are asking each of our Candidates and job seekers, what job will help you thrive? 

The pathway to a career you love is not always straightforward, it may take 4-5 tracks to get there, but eventually, you will! Only if you know. To bring you to an Aha moment of what the career path or activity for you may look like, I welcome you to set aside 20 Minutes to deeply reflect on the three questions below. You don't have to choose only one activity; select multiple activities and lean in on what you feel most strongly about. For each activity, go through the full set of questions. 

Self-reflection questions to identify the career that you would love to pick for yourself:

1. I like doing this task, activity, or job. Would I do anything to invest my time to learn more about it? Learning is continuous...would I be willing to invest in coaching myself day after day to keep improving at this task?
2. Whenever I take up this activity, it gives me joy and gets me all excited! Would I be willing to listen to someone who disagrees with my way of doing this work? Disagreements can lead to improvement. Am I ready to personally get out of my comfort zone and lose a one-track mindset to understand different perspectives about this activity further?
3. Can I see myself doing this for five years at a minimum? Some days will be monotonous; it can feel boring to repeat the same task many times, but discipline and consistency win championships, so can I do that? Can I show up for this task every day and take responsibility for finding gratitude in my work? 

Answering the above three questions and writing these answers down will help you navigate the way forward. 

This exercise helped me find and create ImInclusive and dedicate my life to disability inclusion! I hope it helps you too.

With gratitude,

Hafsa Qadeer