Ultimately, each of us has to determine, independently, what success is to us as individuals.
What Is Necessary to You
To make decisions that will take you to where you want to go, consider your values and your vision. If your office or home were burning, what or whom would you risk your life to save? At life’s end, what do you want to be proud of? What can you call success?
What life trajectory (not just career path) do you really want? A loving family? A house? A car? Other stuff? Pets? Friends? Travel? Intellectual stimulation? Time to research, think, write? Time for family, or projects? Other intangibles? What is necessary to the life you want?
Note that only some of the items on the list can be purchased with money. Some, if you’ve listed friends, family and less tangible items, actually require the investment of your time (instead of money). What life choices are most likely to lead to the life you want?
Reaching the Deeper Why
When you have a list of elements you want, ask, “Why is that important to me?”
Give your answer, starting with the word “Because.”
Then ask again, Why is that important to me?
Begin with “Because…” again.
Continue until you get beyond the superficial answers, such as paying rent, or “always being interested in it” - until you can go no deeper.
The emotional component to mission and values, the “touchstone,” is sometimes invisible to our conscious lives, but when you have found it - when you can see it, and examine it - you’ll be able to articulate why it’s so important for you to survive your arduous educational process.
For example, I worked with a senior to help him prepare for writing his application essay and interviewing for medical school. He said his mission was to be a physician and researcher working on leukemia, but we weren’t getting beyond the superficial answers of “researching leukemia because it’s important.”
So, we began working with the “Why - Because” question series.
Why do you want to research leukemia? Because it is a killer disease.
Why do you want to research a killer disease? Because the cure would help a lot of people.
Why do you want to help a lot of people (who you don’t even know)? Because when I was 8 years old, my little brother died of leukemia, and this research may help other little kids like my brother and prevent the heartache my family went through.
His touchstone reached back to his childhood, as many do, and once he could see it as his motivating mission, it would carry him forward. As a conscious vision of how his work may help other little kids and their families, it can help him push through the inevitable dark hours of med school, when he doubts he can make it and wants to quit.
Knowing his touchstone will help him make decisions on how to reach the essential form of his vision, even through the inevitable barriers.
Vision and Planning
Knowing why you make your choices is a first step, and to make those choices more efficiently, with less second-guessing or experimentation, you need to be able to plan effectively, and set goals.
Only when you know what you want, can you make decisions that will allow you to plan how to get the elements you’ve chosen into your life.
Many of you know the teacher’s classic example for illustrating “first things first.” Get a large jar, and fill it with large rocks – is it full? Fill the space around the rocks with gravel – is it full? Add dry sand, and shake gently to fill the voids around the gravel – is it full? Finally, pour water into the jar until you can answer - Yes, it is truly “full.”
Your values – what you believe in, your truths, your mission – no matter what you call them - are the large rocks. They form the foundation of your vision for a life well lived (and this is not just touchy-feely visioning of your ideal day). This is what you want to see unfold in your future life.
Your vision of your life – not your parents’ or friends’ visions and not your advisors’ or mentors’ visions. Your values have to come first in priority for you – once you’ve begun adding career gravel of “shoulds,” and the sand and water of daily life “have tos,” there may be no room for the mission that’s based on your bedrock of values and vision.
© Copyright, 2011, Kate Duttro. All rights reserved. Used with Permission.
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Job-Hunt's Academic Job Search expert Kate Duttro is a career strategist, coach, and instigator. She writes the Career Change for Academics Blog, for current and recovering academics, and other smart cookies. For more than 10 years, she has provided career services at the University of Washington, where she has counseled, taught classes and workshops, and dug out information for thousands of undergrads, grad students, post docs and alumni in all phases of career development. Holding several degrees, including a PhD in anthropology, Kate has also earned many professional certifications in the field of career coaching.
