Career Planning and Management Inc.

What Do You Want To Be In Your Next Life?

By Dan King

A Collection of Career Assessment Tools, Workbooks and Resources for Individuals, Counselors, Consultants and Organizations

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Sitting in Starbucks tapping away at my computer, feeling very trendy with a frothy beverage at my side, I overhear two women in candid conversation about companionship, clothing and careers.

I don't mean to eavesdrop, but what can I do? They're loud enough to shake the other Starbucks on the next block!

"In my next life, I want to be a designer, maybe do corporate interiors," says one, sipping a decaf vanilla latte with soy milk.

The other, clutching a grande chai with light foam and just a dash of nutmeg, replies, "Oh, I was an interior designer in a past life."

Then Latte with Soy responds, "Really? Where did you work?"

I freeze, like a frappucino in the headlights. Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? Could it be possible that career changes are cyclical -- that you can change careers many times over many lifetimes?

Awakened by my newfound immortality, I am conscious that all jobs are temporary. A dead-end job merely signals us to plan our careers more carefully the next time around. If we do, we can have a second (third, tenth, hundredth) chance to find the perfect job in the hereafter -- or the hereafter after that! Imagine that! The networking possibilities alone -- who-was-who rather than who-knows-who -- suggest a contact list multiplied to the second (third, tenth, hundredth) power! Wow!

(If you've read this far, thank you. Don't call security. Just stay with me a little bit longer because I think there's some valuable learning here.)

In a recent column, I asked "What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?" It was a lot like asking a 21-year-old what he's going to do now that he's all grown up and graduating from college. At this early juncture, his efforts flow mostly toward finding a job, making money and building a personal and social life. The idea that he can do whatever he wants to do is exhilarating, but also pretty terrifying.

The difference in asking that of a 30, 40 or 50-something, is that he or she has already been whatever he or she chose to be when they grew up. At mid-career, our thoughts are more about doing things that, for whatever reasons, we didn't get to do, or didn't think about doing, before. The idea that we can have yet another career ahead is often a whole new thought -- one that is likewise exhilarating and terrifying.

What's new is the notion that the choices we make in our 20s and 30s have less permanence and place fewer restrictions on our available choices in our 40s and 50s. It's possible to change careers many times, at any age. You don't have to wait for your next go-round to get another chance.

So you made some poor career decisions in the past. That's not a crime, so don't assume your work has to be a life sentence. You can break free of it. Challenge your assumptions. Start by identifying what's working and what's not -- and what you want to change.

* What do you most want to wake up to each day? Try drawing a picture of the ideal job: the role, the responsibilities, the tasks, the people, the environment. If you know what you want to find, you'll increase your likelihood of finding it.

* What skills do you possess that you actually enjoy using? If you're like most, you've probably gotten very good at doing things you never chose to do in the first place. Ability has very little to do with enjoyment. Discard the skills you don't enjoy and fill your bag with new, more satisfying ones.

* Who are the sorts of people with whom you want to spend your working time? It's not enough to say you enjoy working with people (you have to), but rather the ways you enjoy working with people: managing them, helping them, teaching them, writing about them or merely going to lunch with them.

* What do you want from your job above and beyond a paycheck? Interesting projects? Stimulating colleagues? Flextime? Independence and autonomy? Clarifying your work values will help you evaluate how satisfying a particular job will be.

* What regrets will you have if you don't explore possibilities for achieving a more satisfying career? A happy work life begets a happy personal and family life. Write an essay entitled "If I Were To Die Tomorrow." Then develop an action plan to create the ending you want to achieve.

The question to ask (whether you believe in reincarnation or not) is not, "what do you want to be in your next life?" but rather "how do you want to spend the remaining time you have in this life?" Longevity is a gift, one we often don't acknowledge until it's almost over. To appreciate it and use it, we need to live our lives like there's no tomorrow.

With that in mind, I'm going for the super dark chocolate biscotti in that big glass jar on the counter -- while there's still time!

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