You’ll Never Be Happy In Your Career Until You Figure This Out
May 31st, 2007 by jethro
A recent study showed that nearly 80% of Americans hate their jobs. I’ve heard a lot of possible reasons for the number being so high. Maybe it’s parents pushed them into a career they weren’t suited for. Or perhaps they picked a career field only because the money was good. But whatever the reason, I suspect you can trace nearly everyone’s job dissatisfaction back to this one single factor…
It all comes back to skills.
God put you on the earth with a set of skills He wants you to use to service Him as well as others. You may have a very large set of skills you can use. Then again, you may have only one thing you do well. But whether your list of skills is large or small, there are a set of skills you have inside you that you enjoy using.
I call this skillset your “core complex” of skills. When you have a job that utilizes your core complex, you’ll find yourself looking forward to going to work every day. You’ll find yourself wanting to go the extra mile. Not only that, but you’ll become very content with the work you do. And godliness with contentment is great gain (1Tim 6:6).
Are you using the skills on your job that you particularly enjoy? If not, what are those skills you like to use? In order to answer that, you need to do a little introspection.
Think through the jobs you’ve had in the past. Even if they were only part-time jobs. If you used a skill in the past that you really liked, it’s a better-than-average chance that skill is part of your core complex. Write it down. Then think about another skill you enjoyed. Write that one down as well.
Pretty soon, you’ll have a pretty good list of skills that you like to use - skills that make up your core complex of skills. Once you’ve got a nice tight list, find out what jobs make use of those skills. Chances are you’d be pretty content in that job or one like it.
Skill evaluation is a very important part of career planning. It will give you some direction and indication of what job fields you’d be happiest in. Maybe you can find yourself in the minority - of people who like their jobs.
Tags: Career Planning, God and Career, Skills
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Career Planning, God and Career, Skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.