What Color Is Your Parachute? (39 page)

There is a name for this moment in your life; in fact, there are several names.

We call it “at last going after your dreams.”

We call it “finding more purpose and meaning for your life.”

We call it “making a career-change.”

We call it “deciding to try something new.”

We call it “setting out in a different direction in your life.”

We call it “getting out of the rat race.”

We call it “going after your dream job.”

We call it “finding your mission in life, at last.”

But what you call it doesn’t really matter. It is instantly recognizable as that moment when you decide that
this time
you’re not going to do just a traditional job-hunt; you’re going to do a life-changing job-hunt or career-change: one that begins with
you
and what it is that
you
want out of life.

This time it’s all about:
Your
agenda.
Your
wishes.
Your
dreams.
Your
mission in life, given you by the Great God, our Creator.

You may think that this is a selfish activity—because it deals with You, you, you. But it is not. It is concerned with what
the world
most needs from you. That world currently is
filled
with workers whose weeklong question is,
When is the weekend going to be here?
And, then, T
hank
G
od
I
t’s
F
riday!
Their work puts bread on the table
but…
they are bored out of their minds. They’ve never taken the time to think out what they uniquely can do, and what they uniquely have to offer to the world.

What the world most needs
from you
is not to add to their number, but to figure out, and then contribute to the world, what you came into this world to do.

In our search for our dream job, our instinct is to start with some survey of the job-market out there, to find out what’s “hot” and what’s not. That could take years. No, this is a
journey
you’re embarking on, not (yet) a destination.

So, it’s useful to recall what travel experts teach about
taking a journey
: before you go, they say, lay out on your bed, two piles. In one pile, put all the
clothes
, toiletries, and stuff that you think you’ll need to take. In the other pile, put all the
money
you think you’ll need to take.

Then, they say, pack only half the clothes, but twice the money.

By coincidence, the same kind of ratio occurs in this journey, This Journey Toward Your Dream Job.

That is: for this journey, you will need only half the information you thought you would need about
the job-market
, but twice the amount of information you thought you would need about
yourself.

We may paraphrase Alexander Pope, here:

Know then thyself,

Do not the Market scan

Until you’ve surveyed all You are,

Then you will have your plan.

Of course, being human, our first instinct is to protest that we already know loads of information about ourselves. After all, we’ve lived with ourselves all these years. We
surely
know who we are, by now.

Well, let’s test that premise.

1. Take ten sheets of blank paper. Write, at the top of each one, the words:
Who Am I?

2. Then write, on each sheet in turn, one answer to that question. And only one.

3. When you’re done, go back over all ten sheets and expand now upon what you have written on each sheet. Looking at each answer, write below it,
why
you said that, and
what turns you on
about that answer.

4. When finished with all ten sheets, go back over them and arrange them in order of priority. That is, which identity is the most important to you? That page goes on top. Then, which is next? That goes immediately underneath the top one. Continue arranging the rest of the sheets in order, until the least important identity is at the bottom of the pile.

5. Finally, go back over the ten sheets, in order, and look particularly at your answer, on each sheet, to
What Turns Me On about This?
See if there are any common denominators, or themes, among the ten answers you gave. If so, jot them down on a separate piece of paper. Voilà! You have begun to put your finger on some things that your dream job or career, vocation, mission, or whatever, needs to give you if you are to feel truly excited, fulfilled, useful, effective, and operating at the height of your powers.

Here, incidentally, is an example, of how one man did this exercise:

Click
here
to view a PDF version of Who Am I?

Now, if this exercise was easy, then you do indeed know a lot about yourself.
But
if it was harder than you thought it would be, then you see there is work to be done. It is urgent for you to know more about who you are.