“Heroes are made by the path they choose, not by the powers they are graced with.”
| Marvel Universe |
It’s a great time to be alive right now, with the all the options laid out before us for even the most basic things, such as ‘what phone should I get?’ But it’s also not easy to live in our times with the vast number of decisions we have to make for something as basic as the phones we use. Can you see the dilemma, these are confusing times, and it gets harder when dealing with more complex situations, like what is the best career pathway for me? What do I want to be? What should I study? Where should I study? We have come a long way from just deciding between ‘hunter’ and ‘gatherer’ with the range of career option available to young people today.
First things first, we must understand and accept that each and every one of us have natural abilities (or gifts), things that we are good at, and this is true whether we know it or not. It is like air, it is there whether we know it, believe it to be there, see it, or not. The sooner we begin to understand this, the easier it will be to map out our future. But how do we do that? I believe that there are 3 main things that we need to be aware of to help start our professional journey. These are:
Recognising our natural abilities - these are skills that we easily pick-up along the way, things we are very comfortable and confident doing or thing that are easy for us to learn. Recognising our natural abilities may give us an indicator of the industry or type of trade we may want to be in. This then narrows down our course selection options.
Understanding our personality - this speaks of our character, behaviour patterns and learning styles. Personality is a subject of study in psychology. Studying our personality will give us a more scientific understanding of ourselves in a way that makes our character and interests easy to understand and explain. Knowing our personality will help guide us whether certain jobs or trades are things we would feel comfortable doing.
Believing that we have a purpose - we all have a purpose and with that comes the gifts or natural abilities that we are to nurture in order to fulfil our purpose. We are by design a purpose driven species, which is why we function best when we have goals and are working towards them. This belief is what pushes us to reach our potential even when things get tough.
Recognising our natural abilities, understanding our personality and believing that we each have a purpose are the very tools that young people need in order to make well-informed decisions about the future. This is not to say that we do not attempt things outside our comfort zone, but rather, that we are able to start by building a foundation on our areas of strength, while improving on other areas at our own pace.
Our team at Missing Link Consultancy is ready to support you through this journey of self-understanding and to help you access the information you need in order to make the decisions you need to make. To get in touch with us, drop us an e-mail at info@missinglinkconsultancy.com or check out our services to find out more.