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Balancing Passion and Practicality in Your Career Choice

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A few years ago, comedienne Melissa McCarthy did an incredibly funny sketch on SNL. She walked into a bank as “Barb,” seeking a small business loan for her new pizza business. The loan officer (played by Jason Sudeikis) soon figured out she was actually asking for a loan to start a pizza eating business. (In other words, she wanted to get paid for eating people’s leftover pizza.) The loan officer asked, “What gave you the idea that the bank would give you money so that you could eat pizza?” McCarthy replied, “I read that book, Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow. And I said, ‘Barb, you love eating pizza!'”

It’s funny because it’s absurd…but you get the point. Yes, we need to follow our passions and pursue careers around “doing what we love,” but obviously, not everything we love to do is going to make money. In other cases, there may be a wide range of career options that allow us to do things that align with our passion. We need a bit of common sense in this equation–and that’s where practicality comes into play.

The journey of career selection can often feel like a tightrope walk, balancing between what truly ignites your spirit (your passion) and what aligns with the realities of life (practicality). Understanding these two concepts is a key step in making an informed career decision.

Passion is that deep-seated enthusiasm or intense desire for a particular subject or activity. It’s what makes your heart race with excitement and fills your mind with images of potential accomplishments. It’s the spark that can turn an ordinary job into a fulfilling career.

On the other hand, practicality refers to considering the tangible aspects of a career choice. This could be the job market demand, financial stability, work-life balance, and career growth opportunities. It’s about ensuring that your career can sustainably support your lifestyle and future goals.

Balancing these two elements in your career choice is crucial because while passion can fuel your drive and make your work feel rewarding, practicality ensures that your career is sustainable and aligns with your personal and financial goals.

Let’s dive deeper into how you can achieve this balance.

Evaluate Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Knowing your strengths can help identify careers that harness your natural abilities, while understanding your weaknesses allows you to spot areas for improvement or careers to avoid. For instance, if you’re passionate about music but struggle with stage fright, a behind-the-scenes role in the music industry (like producing) might be more practical than performing.

Make Practical Choices Around Your Passion

Bear in mind that passion and practicality aren’t always mutually exclusive–in fact, you can often get them to work together. Going back to the analogy of the musician…if you’re passionate about becoming a performer and you know you won’t be happy working behind the scenes, then the practical solution would be to seek training and/or therapy to deal with your stage fright and learn how to overcome it. In other words, don’t give up on your passion because of your weakness, but have a little patience and take practical steps to turn that weakness into a strength.

Take Key Factors into Account with Your Career Choice

When deciding on a career path, it’s also important to consider factors like job availability, income potential, and work-life balance. If you’re passionate about a field with limited job prospects or low pay, you’ll need to make a few practical decisions about how (or if) to pursue it. For example, if the low job demand is a temporary thing, you may choose to “wait it out” and see if the market improves. If your passion is teaching children, you’re choosing a relatively low-paying career, but there’s also a high demand for teachers–so if you decide to pursue that passion, you may just need to make some life adjustments so you can live within your means.

Cultivate Both Passion and Practicality

To truly balance passion and practicality, it’s essential to cultivate both. This might mean taking courses or gaining experience to make your passion more practical, or finding ways to inject passion into a practical career choice. For instance, if you’re passionate about helping people but also need a stable income, you could consider careers in healthcare, social work, or education which are practical and yet align with your passion.

Finally, between passion and practicality, it’s okay to prioritize one over the other at different times in your life. You might need to focus on practicality when starting out, then gradually incorporate more of your passions as you become more established in your career. Choosing a career path is a significant decision, but remember that it’s not set in stone. People often change careers, discover new passions, or find ways to make their current job more fulfilling. It’s during these times of change, growth, and transition that a career coach can be very helpful–and that’s why I’m here. If you want some guidance and support in figuring out a career or job that strikes that balance between passion and practicality, access my calendar to schedule a free, no obligation discovery call for yourself.

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New Year, New Career (Part 2: Taking a Personal Inventory for Career Success)

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If you’re like most people, once you’ve made the decision to embark on a whole new career, the first emotion you feel may be one of excitement and hope…followed quickly by a sense of terror. What have I done? you ask yourself. What am I doing?

Sound familiar?

Relax. (I know…easier said than done.) This is probably going to be stressful, but the emotions you’re feeling are completely natural. Making a major career change is certainly daunting. The best way to get past this feeling is to start making a plan. And that begins with what I call taking a personal inventory. With this process, you’re going to do some internal work to discover your “personal assets”–exploring your skills, your passions, and your motivations so that you can reimagine how these assets can fit into a new career. (Note: this step is primarily for people who have left their current job or are planning to do so, but they don’t really know what they want to do next. If you already have a good idea about your next career and why you’re making the change, this blog will be informative, but not essential. You’ve already done this work.)

Ready? Here we go…

List Your Strengths

The first thing to do with a personal inventory is to compile a list your strengths. Here are a few questions to ask yourself and get you thinking:

  • What are your known talents?
  • What are your acquired skills?
  • What do you consider your personality strengths?
  • What successes at your previous jobs are you most proud of?
  • How do you uniquely solve problems or come up with creative solutions?

Think about what makes you unique and stand out from other working professionals. Consider any experiences or skills you have that could be valuable in the workplace. For example, if you’re seeking a leadership role, list any experiences you’ve had in the past that demonstrate your ability to lead teams. If you don’t have much experience in the area yet, think about soft skills like communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking that could be beneficial in any role.

At this point, don’t downplay anything. Every skill and talent matters! Writing down a thorough list of your strengths will help to create the basis for finding a new career.

List Your Passions

While the previous step focuses on what you can do, this next step focuses on what you want to do. Among the talents and skills you listed in the previous step, do any stand out as something you love to do more than the others?

Your passions are just as important as your strengths when taking an inventory of yourself, and possibly even more so. What drives and motivates you? What topics do you find interesting? List anything that comes to mind—even if it seems far-fetched at first—as these can highlight potential industries or roles that may be right for you. You may even find unexpected connections between passions and potential career paths once everything is laid out on paper.

Find Your “Why”

This one is going to take some work, and it may not come overnight…but it’s well worth the effort. With this step, you’re going to review your passions and strengths and try to narrow things down even further to find your core motivation–the thing that gets you up in the morning, so to speak.

Your “why.”

I’ve talked about this before, but it especially bears repeating in the context of finding a new career path. Most people know what they do, but they don’t know why they do it. Finding your “why” is key to identifying a career path that you love, one that you’re going to stick with–one that feels more like a life calling than a job. For this step, I recommend re-reading this blog post, as well as working your way through Simon Sinek’s books Start with Why and Find Your Why. Doing this work should start pointing you in the direction of a career path that is more aligned with your “why.” (For many people, it also shows them why they weren’t happy in their previous career.)

View Your Personal Assets in a New Light

Once you have listed your talents and passions, and once you’ve at least begun the process of finding your “why,” it’s time to take a fresh look at these personal assets. Ask yourself why these qualities matter to you, both personally and professionally. Why do they make sense within the context of a certain industry or job function? This is where things get really interesting–because you’ll likely begin to see options for how these abilities and motivations can fit into a new and different career that you perhaps never even thought of. (I often use myself as a personal example here: when I made my career change, I discovered that the passions and skills that fueled my decades-long career in human resources would serve me even better in my current role as a career coach!)

Believe it or not, once you get through these steps, you’ll already be well on your way to discovering a new career for yourself. In the upcoming blog posts in this series, we’ll go through some more practical steps for setting yourself up for your new career. In the meantime, this process can be challenging, and it’s typically much easier when you have someone to help guide you through the steps. If you’d like to explore the option of getting some career coaching, that’s what I’m here for. Just click here to access my calendar and set up a free 30-minute initial consultation.

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6 Ways to Know When It’s Time for a Career Change

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We keep talking about the so-called “Great Resignation” taking place in America right now–millions of people leaving their jobs in the wake of the pandemic to look for something more fulfilling. But that doesn’t mean a career change is right for everyone, nor does it mean you should jump on the “Great Resignation” bandwagon just because you’re craving adventure. Life change is serious business, after all.

So how do you know when it’s time to “take the leap” and start seriously thinking about changing jobs or careers? Here are six important telltale signs to look for in your life.

1. You’re Chronically Unhappy at Work (and Maybe Off Work, Too)

At the risk of being Captain Obvious here, your “happiness meter” is a huge barometer as to whether you’re at the right job. Now, realistically, we all have good days and bad days at work…but if all the work days are bad ones, and you’re at the point that you dread getting out of bed on work days, then it’s safe to say you’re unhappy at your job. This can be a source of stress that can even make you cranky off-the-job, too. If you’re becoming increasingly unpleasant during your days off because you’re dreading your next work day, then your job has become an emotional liability in your life, and it may be time to look at something new.

2. You Feel Bored and Unfulfilled at Your Job

If you’re going to spend at least five-sevenths of your week doing something, it should be at least somewhat fulfilling and rewarding. If you’re unmotivated and uninterested in your day-to-day tasks, or if you’re doing your work mindlessly, it’s a strong sign that it might be time to re-think your career. A lack of fulfillment at work can quickly lead to feelings of resentment, so it’s important to take steps to change your situation before those feelings fester.

3. Your Job is Making You Sick…Literally

This one is a bit more serious, but if your job is causing you physical stress and making you sick, it’s definitely time to start looking for a new line of work. Stress can manifest in all sorts of physical ways, from headaches and nausea to stomach issues and difficulty sleeping. If you find that your job is regularly making you physically ill, it’s a sign that your body is telling you it’s time for a change.

4. You’re “Living for the Weekend”

This is a classic American trope, and it affects so many of us that we write songs about it. But that doesn’t mean it’s right or healthy. If you’re spending the majority of your time focused on the two days a week that you don’t have to work, that means five-sevenths of your life is effectively being wasted right now on stuff that doesn’t really matter to you. If you find that you’re only able to enjoy your life outside of work, and that your work week is just a long, slow slog until you can finally enjoy your time off again, it’s a sign that your job isn’t giving you what you need.

5. You’ve Reached the Growth Ceiling at Your Job

This is a common issue, especially in larger corporations. You start at the bottom, you work your way up, and suddenly…you hit a wall. You’re no longer being challenged, you’re not learning anything new, you’re getting overlooked for promotions, or there’s simply nowhere else to go in the company. Now, if you’re happy at your position and you don’t feel the need to move up, that’s fine–nothing wrong with that. But we all need to keep growing in some way. If you feel your career growth is stunted at your current job, it may be time to seek a new one–or perhaps even a new line of work.

6. You Have No Time or Energy to Pursue Your Passions

This might just sound like I’m saying you’re working too many hours per week, but think for a moment about this one. If you have passions that you want to pursue outside of work, but you never feel like you have enough time off to do anything about them…or worse, if you feel so drained at the end of a work week that you have no energy to pursue those passions…then guess what? Your work is NOT aligned with your passion. Remember when we talked about “finding your why?” If you live an unfulfilled life where your job is standing in the way of everything you really want to do, then your why lies somewhere outside of your job. Yes, there are seasons in life when we simply have to do what pays the bills, but for the long term, you need to find a career that brings your what and your why together. Otherwise, you’ll spend your best years looking at a distant dream you can never quite reach–and that’s just plain torture.

Finally, a reality check. There are some people who like to use cliches like “do what you love” and “work shouldn’t feel like work.” But I’m a realist, and the fact is those sayings are only half-truths. I’m doing what I love, but trust me, there are many days when it definitely feels like work. I don’t know of a single profession that doesn’t include certain tasks we’d prefer to avoid (or better yet, delegate). But even when I’m doing a specific thing that feels like drudgery in the day-to-day, I ultimately feel fulfilled by my work because I know I’m pursuing my why. That’s why I say having a bad day once in a while shouldn’t be enough to get you on the take-this-job-and-shove-it bandwagon.

That said, I think in our true selves, we know the difference between when a job gets periodically difficult and when that job is truly draining us. If you relate to any of the five indicators above on a regular basis, you may at least want to begin exploring whether it’s time for a change. And the more of those points you relate to…the more likely it is that your job is actually hindering you from living life to the fullest.

Here’s the good news: There really is more to life than simply “living for the weekend.” There are plenty of career opportunities that will completely align with your passions, and there’s nothing wrong with seeking a job that makes you want to get up in the morning. If you want help finding that career, that’s the stuff that gets ME up in the morning. I’d love to help you find what you’re looking for. Just click here to access my calendar and set up a free 30-minute consultation.

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Finding Your Niche (Part 3)

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We started this series by talking about how having a niche within your skill set can put you in greater demand, whether as a prospective employee or when starting your own business. Then I shared a bit of my personal journey to explain how I found my own niche as a life-career coach. That said, finding your own niche isn’t always an easy process. It often requires patience along with a bit of trial-and-error until you figure out the right combination of ingredients for yourself. So let’s wrap up our discussion on this topic by offering some tips for how you can find your own niche within your career.

Every Profession Has Specialties

First of all, you need to recognize that almost every type of job, profession, business and industry has specialties (read: niches) within that profession, job description, etc. They aren’t always easy to spot—because if they were, they wouldn’t be “specialties!” But they are there if you look for them. A financial advisor might specialize in helping elderly people qualify for Medicaid for their end-of-life care, for example. A carpenter might specialize in renovating living spaces in upscale neighborhoods. A plumber might specialize in repairing or replacing pipes in historic homes. And of course, there are almost more specialties in law and healthcare than we can count. Take a look within your own profession or skillset and look for some possible specialties—ways you might narrow down your scope or focus. Jot a few of them down and keep them in mind, realizing these might not be things you would specialize in—but that you could if you wanted to.

Revisit Your Passions

A few weeks ago on this blog, I talked about ways to find your true passion so that it can inform your career decisions. Take another look at that exercise to see what you came up with, then look at your list of possible niches and see if there are any specialties that resonate with your own passions. If nothing comes to mind, try it the other direction: Try to verbalize the things you’re passionate about and see whether you can imagine a specialty within your profession that lines up with those passions. (If you simply can’t find anything after extensive thought—you might be in the wrong profession, and you might want to rethink your overall direction.)

Look at What’s Needed

Can you identify any unmet needs within your general profession or business? What problems do customers or clients have within your line of work—gaps in service that are not being filled? What do customers wish could be improved or innovated? What frustrations could you alleviate? Many times, identifying current unmet needs in your vertical can lead you to a very profitable niche.

Above all, exercise patience in this process. You may start identifying a niche for yourself, only to find in a few months it’s not what you really wanted or what people need, and you’ll have to adapt and make a few adjustments. But when you hit the “sweet spot,” so to speak, your niche can become a place of both great profitability and personal fulfillment.

If you’re uncertain about your professional future, I’m here to help! For a free initial 30-minute consultation, call GiraffesConsulting today at 646-320-1126.

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Finding Your Niche (Part 2)

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In the previous post, we talked about the power of finding a specialty or niche within your particular industry, and how it can serve you whether you’re an entrepreneur starting a new business or a professional seeking to get hired at a firm. Not only does this put you in greater demand as one of a select few people that offer that particular skill, but when you choose a niche in line with your passions, it also gives you the opportunity to do more work that you genuinely care about. I’d like to continue this discussion with a story from my personal experience.

More About My Story

I worked as a human resources executive for decades, and I was good at what I did. When a corporate merger made my job redundant, I found myself in the throes of change—the same as many of my clients are today. I decided I didn’t want to seek another job in human resources—I wanted to put those skills to use in a different way.

As someone who enjoys working with people, I decided to become a certified coach. I attended and graduated from the Georgetown University Leadership and Coaching program, became a member of the International Coaching Federation and set up an independent practice as a life coach.

However, I soon began to feel that I might be even more effective as a life coach if I narrowed my scope a bit. I looked at my own recent experience navigating a major life change, and I realized I cared very deeply about helping others make this kind of transition—so I began to focus my practice on helping people through major change in their lives. (Hence my slogan, “Change happens—take control!”)

But then I noticed something interesting that helped me hone my focus even further: Among the clients who were seeking my services, the vast majority were going through exactly the same type of “change” I went through—the change of a job or career. Either they had been laid off and needed to find a new job, or they felt stale in their job and wanted to find their way into something new.  This is where the human resources part of my former job came in handy—I understood this space better than most! The answer soon became clear: I needed to focus on career coaching—on helping people navigate the difficult transition between jobs or help people shift into a new career.

The result? GiraffesConsulting. This practice is now my niche! To reflect this specialty, I now refer to myself as a life-career coach. I still offer basic life coaching help to those who want or need it, but now anyone who meets me understands right away that I can specifically help them find their way into a new career—and I have found great joy in helping people do just that.

So…how do you find your own niche? I’ll offer some practical guidance in part 3 of this series.

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Finding Your True Passion: Three Questions to Ask Yourself

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Some people gravitate toward change when the status quo becomes uncomfortable or unbearable. For others, change is thrust upon them. Perhaps you’re looking for a new career simply because you’re burned out on your current one—or maybe you’ve found yourself laid off from a job and you just don’t have the heart to look for the same job in another firm. Either way—it’s a sign that perhaps your career hasn’t been aligned to your true passion. That means now is the perfect time to make that shift into something that truly gets you excited to get up in the morning.

But what if you don’t know what that “something” is?

If you have never identified your true passions, you’re not alone. A lot of us simply have no clue as to what really floats our boat. Sometimes it’s because we stifled those passions at some point in our development—and sometimes it’s just that we’ve gotten so busy doing things we thought we needed to do that we never stopped to consider what we wanted to do. The time between jobs gives you a unique opportunity to figure out this haunting question, in part because you can’t use busy-ness as an excuse! And if you’ve not considered where your passions really lie, it’s an exercise worth doing because you’ll be much happier and more fulfilled in a job you really love than one that just pays the bills.

I believe we all have some sort of driving passion, whether it’s obvious or whether it’s somehow been buried. Here are three questions to ask yourself to help you discover yours.

Question 1: What would you do for free?

Another way of wording this question is, “What would you do with your time if money were no object?” If you answered something along the lines of lounging in a hammock by the ocean drinking a mint julep, you’re thinking the wrong way. That’s a vacation, not a passion. Eventually even that leisurely lifestyle would become boring if you did it every day. So think instead of something you love to do—something meaningful that makes you lose track of time when you do it. If more than one thing comes to mind, jot it down—at least this gives you a short list.

Question 2: What is in your book/magazine collection?

What do you enjoy reading in your spare time? Take an inventory of your favorite books and magazine subscriptions. The answer might not show up obviously, but occasionally you’ll identify a pattern. For example, if you love romance novels, that probably doesn’t mean you want a career as Fabio’s housewife—but it might point to a deeper interest of writing novels or starting a dating service. If you are obsessed with news articles and current events, this interest might point to a career in activism or even politics. Make sense? Look for the patterns beneath what you read to see what passions might be motivating those choices.

Question 3: What do you enjoy teaching others about?

When we love doing something, we generally love talking about it, also. Do you catch yourself telling other people more than they want to know on a certain subject? Has someone ever asked you to teach them to do something you happen to do well, and you found yourself getting a huge rush out of showing them how it was done? Subjects you can talk for hours about are good potential indicators of possible life directions.

There are plenty of other ways to identify your true passions, but these three questions form a good starting point for you—and they may be all you need to figure out a deeper passion from which to launch a new career. If you want more help, I’m glad to offer a free 30-minute consultation. Just fill out the form to the right!

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You Don’t Really Want a Job. You Want a Purpose.

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“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –Confucius

Here’s a little secret. If you’re transitioning between careers and all you’re doing is looking for a “job”—you’re not digging deep enough.

Jobs come and jobs go. If you’ve been recently laid off, you understand this as well as anyone. There really is no such thing as “job security.” What’s more, the whole idea of having a job is really about just having a paycheck. It helps you eat and pay the bills, but not much more than that—and if it’s not a job you really love, you’ll eventually come to resent it.

And sadly, if you’re like 85 percent of the population, you know what that feels like, too. Because that’s how many people in America hate their jobs.

What’s my point? You shouldn’t be looking for a job. You should be looking for a purpose.

Where Is Your Passion?

What do you really love to do? What sorts of things fill you with a sense of purpose and fulfillment? Once you understand the answers to these questions, then you can look for a job (or in some cases even create a job) that lets you pursue those passions. And that’s when you feel like you’re not working a day in your life. That’s when you feel energized about getting up and going to the office, studio or workspace every day. Make sense?

How Do You Turn a Purpose into a Career?

Let’s ponder another quote:

“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.”—Katherine Whitehorn

To be clear, I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t have a job, per se. A career based on purpose rather than a paycheck can take many forms. It might be a position at a firm; it also might be a business you start for yourself, or even a nonprofit group. The idea here is to refine your job search by identifying the pathways that best serve your purpose. Yes, that means you might even have to say no to some opportunities that don’t fit within your purpose. However, that doesn’t mean you’re limiting your options. In fact, by thinking in these broader strokes, you’re actually opening up more possibilities, for yourself, not fewer. You open yourself up to ideas that might never have occurred to you if you were still just looking for a job.

No matter how long you’ve been between positions, I urge you if at all possible to avoid the snare of trying to get a job just to get a regular paycheck again. Think of this transition time, this time of change, as an opportunity to discover (or re-discover) your purpose—then let that purpose inform your direction as to a future job or career.

If you can do this…that’s when you’ll start to see that change itself can be the greatest gift you’ve ever been given.