I found Career Coach: Figuring Out the Right Questions had some excellent questions, which I’m going to work with this morning, in between work activities.
1. First, try making a list of all of your vocational aspirations, starting from the earliest. Don’t disqualify any ambition on the grounds that it was ridiculous or unrealistic. For each item, jot down any ideas that come to mind about what attracted you to this vocation. Again, don’t omit details just because they seem silly. When you’re done, look over the list, and see if you can discern any common threads.
2. Now make a similar list, of books, films and TV shows you have loved, again starting with early childhood. What drew you to them? How do these descriptions relate to those on your career aspiration list?
3. Moving into the present, think of activities that fulfill you now, independent of financial gain, social prestige, or other secondary advantages. What is it that you get out of each?
4. Finally, if you were to become financially independent tomorrow, how would you use your time? What would you hope to accomplish?
You can play along at home (or at work), if you wish. Feel free to post responses.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Fascinating. I’m facing a very similar process: having being diagnosed with a terminal illness, I am not only “retired” at 52, but I also have to ask myself the whole “bucket list” question as well. And the irony, of course, is that I already had the perfect job, my plan was to NEVER retire, and likewise I’d always told myself that if I discovered I only had a year to live, my hope would be to just keep on doing what I was already doing. But that’s not really possible any more, so now I’ve got to answer those hypothetical questions as if they were (since they ARE) real.
1) if you could afford to retire at 52, what would you want to do with the rest of your life?
2) If you were told you only had another year to live, what would you want to do before you died?
April 27th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I’m so sorry to hear this, Eclectic Cleric.
I suppose there is some balance among wanting to build a legacy of sorts (emotional perhaps, financial, or purely practical) finding meaning in the experience, and enjoying oneself.
What have you found to be the answers for you?
April 28th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I’ve answered similar questions to myself, and it got me realizing that my favorite things to do (read, talk, teach, tell jokes) actually work pretty well with my job/career and perhaps another ideal career, that of author and coach/mentor to interns in my profession. That’s what I’d do id i suddenly had all the money I needed to live–I’d write and hold classes and mentorship sessions and whatnot with those up and coming in my profession.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:45 am
I think you’d be really good at the classes and mentorship in your profession!