You Majored in What? (17 page)

2. Start brainstorming and write down Possible Lives all over the paper in no particular order—everything you’ve ever thought about, fantasized about, or thought would be interesting or cool to do. Draw a circle around each one and then draw a line connecting each one back to the circle in the center (you).

• List two to ten possible lives (or more, if you don’t find it overwhelming).

• Always include one blank circle for the yet undiscovered career.

• Don’t censor your ideas.

• No limitations other than basic laws of physics or physiology

• Don’t consider whether you have the education or talent

• Don’t consider the salary (or lack thereof)

• Jot down your ideas even if you “know” they’re unrealistic

A sample Possible Lives Map is shown on the next page.

MINING YOUR POSSIBLE LIVES

Now that you’re done, step back and take a look at your map. Do any opportunities seem particularly exciting or interesting? Was it fun to just dream and write whatever you wanted? Did you uncover any new ideas or hidden wishes? Just as you did with the Wandering

Map, you’re going to analyze your Possible Lives Map for common themes or relationships among your different lives. Are many of your lives

• Artistic or creative?

• Athletic?

• Active?

• Thoughtful or quiet?

• People intensive?

• Serving or helping others?

• Related to money or status?

• Based on additional education such as graduate school?

• Based on a talent?

Notice your role or the setting you’d be in:

• Are you often in charge?

• Are you the center of attention?

• Are you in a medical, educational, business, or other setting?

• Are you performing in some way?

• What skills are you using?

• Are you in the United States or are you abroad?

• Are you in a permanent career or in something you’d do for just a year or so?

As you discover your themes, write them down on the back of your map. If you look at Sherri’s map, you’ll notice that a lot of her possible lives are creative or artistic in nature, or they are business or management oriented and require attention to detail, strong communication skills, and lots of energy. Notice too that she left one life blank to fill in later. She’s leaving room for the butterfly.

As you continue reviewing your map, how many of these Possible Lives would you like to pursue seriously?

•
One?
As you look at your options, do you have one particular point attractor? Does something jump out at you as an obvious first choice? Then that’s where you can begin your planning. On the line connecting your first choice to the circle in the center (you), list some steps you need to take before you can start doing that activity or job. Don’t worry if you don’t know every step; you’ll develop a more detailed plan later. For instance, if Sherri had selected “event planner,” she might write “Find internship at hotel” on the line.

•
Two or Three?
Draw an extra circle around your top choices or put a star next to them. Start thinking about how you could begin pursuing each of them now, and write those ideas on the lines connecting to the circle in the center.

• For instance, if each of the three options requires a college degree, then you’re already on the way. You can keep doing what you’re doing.

• If any of your choices requires a particular skill (like writing), then you can look for opportunities to improve that skill and develop a portfolio of writing samples.

• If you see them as opposing ideas (pendulum attractors), do they have to be? Can you think of a creative way to combine them? If you are interested in a career as a golf instructor but are also considering graduate study in architecture, could you find a graduate program at a university that has a great golf program as well? Maybe you could work at a golf resort while attending school. If you can’t find an instructing job, there’s always caddying or working in the store, playing in local tournaments, and so on. You’ll learn a lot just being around the golfing atmosphere. Maybe you could even specialize in designing golf resorts by adding landscaping courses to your architectural degree.

•
More Than Three?
That’s OK. Let’s play with some ways you could handle all your choices. Remember that you don’t have to choose; this is a box of chocolates, not a candy machine. Here are some ways to resolve the “I want all the candy in the box” feeling:

• Pick one at a time, fully enjoy it, and then move on to the next.

• Maybe you want to teach English in Japan, travel throughout South America, and also start a career in human resources (HR) management. Knowing that once you start up the management ladder you might not be as free to travel, you might choose to take two years now and teach in Japan for one year and in South America the next, and then pursue the HR career when you return.

• Perhaps you would like to start a nonprofit organization to fund college education for traditionally underrepresented students, but you need to earn a lot of money first. You might want to work in a financial field for part of your career and then when you’ve saved the money you need to start your business (and developed some great connections), you can pursue your ultimate dream.

• Pick several and take a bite of each by pursuing several avenues at one time.

• The person above who wanted to teach abroad before starting her HR career could
do everything at once
perhaps by teaching English to workers in foreign corporations. She could contact their HR departments and perhaps be hired temporarily or be permitted to advertise her services in the company newsletter. She might get a taste of HR while she’s exploring the world. Just think how that will look on her résumé when she returns to the United States.

• Maybe you listed “rock star” as one of your lives. And maybe you actually play in a band and have started playing in clubs. There’s no reason you can’t
explore one career on the weekends while you work at another job to cover your expenses.
And it’s even better if you actually enjoy your day job. Then when that music career takes off and your travel interferes with your day job, you’ll know which choice to make.

One recent graduate pursued an accounting career, which he enjoyed, while pursuing his dream job, musician, which he loved, playing in clubs on weekends. When his music career picked up and he found an agent, he dropped his regular job to pursue the music career full time. The bonus: he knows accounting, so he can monitor his income and investments. But he also knows the fickle nature of the music business, and if his music career doesn’t take off, he plans to start a financial management business for musicians in a few years.

• Bounce back and forth with one option remaining consistent and the other changing as you wish.

• Teaching, for example, gives you three months a year to sample different ideas. Some teachers save up for a trip each summer to teach English in Mexico, volunteer in Costa Rica, research a special interest, or work at archaeological digs. Others devote their time off to a creative project, such as writing a book or composing a symphony. Many teachers supplement their income and find variety by pursuing extra careers as travel agents or entrepreneurial tutors or other business roles. If you have always had an interest in space travel, NASA offers a special summer program just for teachers.

• You can use this approach to
pursue grad school on a part-time basis while you work at your regular job.
Your employer might even pay for grad school.

•
You can incorporate your different career ideas and themes into one job.
It’s a little like taking several pieces of candy and mixing them together. It might be hard to see while you’re a student, but it is possible to incorporate your interests into your job. Even though I’ve managed career centers for the bulk of my career, I’ve added lots of extras to my job, including taking students to Ireland to explore internship opportunities, teaching film courses such as Psychology and Cinema, training college professors in Italy, and even doing art projects (a hobby) with students and staff.

• You can
choose to pursue one or more areas as a hobby or volunteer opportunity.
You don’t have to abandon your dreams just because you can’t make a living from them. Pursue a living you enjoy while continuing to play the French horn, take photographs, create a blog, write in your journal, and so on. If you love opera but can’t even sing in the shower, you could volunteer for your local opera society and be surrounded by people who love the same thing you do. You can channel your creativity or other themes and skills into jobs that on the surface don’t seem related. If you have strong creative talents, you’re probably also an idea person, and you might like a job where you would use your imagination and creative thinking skills. Have you considered consulting firms that design creative training programs for large corporations? If you’re a writer, you might want to look at technical writing where you can craft the best how-to manuals for the nontechnical people among us. You might want to teach in a public or private school where you can design unique lesson plans and teach courses related to your interests.

•
None?
What if you are still staring at a blank piece of paper? If you are, you might feel like quitting. Don’t. There’s no reason to. All the blank piece of paper is saying is that you don’t have an idea right now. Remember chaos theory: figure out what you know, what you don’t know, and what you need to learn. And you have done just that: you know what you don’t know.

• In a recent talk based on his book
The Power of Intention,
Dr. Wayne Dyer said that if you don’t know your purpose in life, then that’s your purpose in life: to find your purpose in life. Well, if you don’t know what your Possible Lives might be, then you have a mission: to find some Possible Lives that might interest you.

• In the same way that other readers with career ideas are going to be encouraged to make plans, set goals and intentions, and start experimenting—so are you. Just keep going. The answer is inside you; for a variety of reasons, it’s just not ready to come out.

• Be honest with yourself, though: is it true that you have no ideas or is there another issue at work here? Do you have a dream, but you’re too afraid to write it down because of what others might think? Do you just not have the energy or interest? Is there something blocking you? If so, you might want to take your Wandering Map and the other exercises you’ve done to a counselor and get some assistance sorting it out. Often other people can see what we can’t see about ourselves.