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How to Choose a Career Path · The Daily Writer

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 118 of the Born to Create Podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kent Sanders, and this is the show where we explore the mindset, habits, and skills to help you make a bigger impact in your life and creative work.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we are in a about a two-month-long series where I'm just answering listener questions.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a backlog of questions I've been wanting to get to for a while now, and I thought we would put the interviews on pause and just go through some listener questions these last couple months of 2019.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And today's question is from Francis, who asks a question that I think a lot of us have dealt with.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's about how to choose your career path.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now keep in mind as I read his question, it's a little bit lengthy.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: English is not his first language, so just kind of bear with me a little bit.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: But he asked something that is a really, really insightful question, and I will uh tell you what I think after I read his question.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Francis says this thank you so much for your emails.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're really inspiring.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, I have difficulties in choosing a career or starting one.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still finding it difficult to understand my interests.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Many careers entice me.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love being independent in every aspect of my life, so working for someone or choosing a job is not my kind of thing.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Recently I have been broody with questions of personal career choice and what I want to become for my life and future.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a graduate with a degree in accounting, but I don't feel I really belong in this area of life.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Please, I need your advice.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Francis, thank you so much for sending your question, and I think a lot of us can relate to this idea of what career path should I choose?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can relate to this struggle, and I think many people can as well.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to start out with a couple of questions for you.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: What kinds of things do you enjoy doing?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do you like writing, music, art, or other kinds of pursuits?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And also are you currently working in accounting and are you wanting to move out of that field?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think an important principle to keep in mind is that you probably are not going to be doing one set thing for the rest of your life.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your career is going to consist of a variety of things over the course of several decades.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's pretty rare for anybody to focus on doing one type of work for their whole life.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important not to get too worried about finding a single overall vocation that's going to last for several decades.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how I think of it instead.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Think of your career like a playground that can include lots of different ways to have fun.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I'm currently a college professor, I've been doing that for about 15 years, but on the side, I also do podcasting, I do writing for myself and for clients, and I do other kinds of freelance work as well.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also getting into speaking and perhaps consulting in the next couple years.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So what I do is not just one thing, it's actually a collection of things in the overall playground of creative work.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now think about what you would like to be doing in three years.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned that you don't want to work for someone, but that you want to build your own thing.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: In essence, what I'm suggesting is that you build your own playground.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: It'll take time, but I know that you can do it.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a great first step to doing this is finding a couple of clients who you can serve with your talents.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: For example, instead of working for a company, can you find some creative types who also need accounting services?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I have a good friend named Chris Morris, and he's a CPA for two types of clients, for creative entrepreneurs and also for chiropractors.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, speaking of chiropractors, I think in many ways chiropractors are more similar to independent artists than they are to traditional doctors.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Most chiropractors have a small practice that they're a part of.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of chiropractors own their own practice.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So in many ways, they have to be pretty creative with their marketing and they're sort of like independents out there who are building their own thing, as opposed to what most doctors do, which is work in a practice with other doctors or they work for a hospital or some other kind of medical organization or something like that.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So back to the main point, my friend Chris is using his accounting talents to work with creative types, and you can do the same thing.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can blend your two passions or your two skills, your desire to be involved in creative things and the arts, but also your skill set with accounting.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can actually blend those two things in an area where you can niche down and you can focus on serving a very specific type of client, which can also set you apart because you do something that's really specific instead of just being kind of a general accountant.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to check out my friend Chris's website, you can check it out at Chris Morris C P A.com.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's C H R I S M-O-R-R-I-S-CPA.com, and you'll get a really good sense of what he does and who he serves.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I want to point you to two blog posts on my website that I think will be helpful.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll link to these in the show notes, but uh I'll give you the URL here as well.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: One is Kent Sanders.net slash career questions, the other is Kent Sanders.net slash life dash purpose.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those blog posts, they go through some things to help you think about what your purpose in life is and they give you some questions to direct you uh to point you in the right direction, I think, in terms of your career.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we tend to think of our careers like a straight road where we walk in these sequential steps by ourselves, and therefore we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to choose the right road, quote unquote.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a creative career is not like that at all.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's more like a playground where we have different ways to express our energy and our creativity.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a collection of various things rather than just one thing.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you go to a playground, you have a slide, you have a merry-go-round, you have swings, you have other kinds of things.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to stay on one thing the whole time.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You might go on the slide for a while, then you might go on the swings for a while, then you might go on the merry-go-round for a while.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And all of those things are a part of the playground.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: That is what our vocation or a career is.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And also a second part to this is that rather than walking down a straight road by yourself, you know, and viewing your career that way, view your career or your vocation like a playground where you're not just playing on several different things that are related to one another, you're also playing with other people.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a super key part of this.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to encourage you to connect with some other people in your area or who have your same interests or skills and borrow their wisdom and borrow their insight and see if they can give you some pointers or some people that you can connect with as well that are in your area, or people that you love what they're doing and you want to be doing the same type of work.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Connect with those people, send them a Facebook messenger and email.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: See if you can have a chat on Skype or on Zoom or grab a coffee with them.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to be intentional and reach out to people who are doing the kind of work that you want to do if you want to then be moving in that direction.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think that can be a really great way of doing that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: But you also have to be intentional in doing that.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Francis, thanks so much for your question.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you sending that in.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And those are my thoughts.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And for everybody else listening, I'd love to hear what you think about my thoughts on this episode.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that by heading over to Apple Podcast and leaving a rating and a review, or you can also leave a comment on this episode at KentSanders.net slash 118, where you can find the show notes and the links.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and design to make a difference.