Tom has spent most of his working life in claims administration.
It’s the same every day. He goes into the office, makes his first coffee and then it’s a repetitive procession of tasks.
Checklist follows checklist.
Deadline follows deadline.
Claim follows claim.
Yesterday, it was time for his annual review. While it went well and his boss is quite happy with his performance, he sits back at his desk and thinks … I’m so bored.
Do you know the feeling?
Do you feel like your job just doesn’t hold any interest for you?
A job that lacks interest is a dead-end
A career that bores you can only lead to one thing: job dissatisfaction.
It doesn’t matter how much it plays to your strengths, if a role doesn’t hold interest for you, you become disengaged, forget how to be curious, and this dissatisfaction often starts leaching into other areas of your life too.
The key to a fulfilling career lies at the intersection of four factors: your strengths, what you love, what is important to you and what is financially-viable for you to do for work. I call this the SLIM (strengths + love + importance + money) model.
How to find your interests
What you love to do, or your interests, are an integral component in an enriched career. Your interests are where you lose time because you get so caught up in what you are doing, you lose track of everything else.
Analysing your interests can help you identify what to look for in a future career, or even highlight a way to bring more engagement into your current role. To start uncovering your true interests, and have the chance to do what you love, try asking yourself these three questions:
- What hobbies did you used to do, before life got so busy? Would you like to take up any of those again?
5 – 8 lines
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2. What topic could you read 200 books about and still want to know more?
5 – 8 lines
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3. Thinking about your current or past jobs, what activities or tasks did you find the most engaging?
5 – 8 lines
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When you find a career that incorporates your interests (along with the other components of the SLIM model) you’ve discovered the key to an enriched career.
Tom was lucky. With the help of this model, he was able to sidestep into a similar job, but one that played to his lifelong interest in tennis. He now enjoys an enriched career in a regional administrative role for a tennis association.
Want to be like Tom and get to do what you love?
For more insight into how to identify your interests and a career that incorporates them, stay tuned for my upcoming book release: So You’re Career Confused! WTF is Next?
Keyword: do what you love
