5 Ways To Figure Out Your Dream Career

These days career change happens more often than Lady Gaga changes her outfit. More and more women are escaping the 9-5 monotony to create a career that lights them up.

It’s never to late to start a new. If your current job gives you the Sunday blues, then maybe it’s time to plan your escape?

We asked author Rebecca Campbell to give us five simple ways to discover your dream job now:

1. Meditation We all have an intuitive voice. It speaks in whispers, longings and niggling feelings. The best way to hear it is through daily meditation. But don’t fret, you don’t need to sit cross legged for hours on end, 10 minutes a day will do the trick. Challenge: Meditate for 21 days and notice the shift

2. Your gifts are on the other side of your fears

Fear is a dream serial killer. But what if fear was actually a sign that you were on the right track? Our greatest gifts are almost always on the other side of our greatest fears (annoying but true). So if you’ve got a secret dream that scares you like crazy, then take a deep breath a good old run up and leap. The only way to stop a fear is to face it. Question: If you weren’t afraid, what would you do?

3. Follow what lights you up

The best way to find yourself in your dream career is to follow the secret trail of things that light you up. It sounds pretty simple but don’t underestimate the power of this baby. A few years ago when I was working in advertising I decided to give it a go. Before long I discovered that flowers lit me up and so I decided to buy myself a bunch every week. From being around the flowers I found myself getting inspired and writing little thoughts in my moleskin and posting them on Instagram. Those little notes then turned into my blog and then morphed into a book proposal. A year later as I was typing the last word of my book I looked up to discover I was sitting in the middle of Regent’s Park Rose Garden where I had written the whole thing! Follow what lights you up and, before you know it, you’ll find yourself right in the middle of not only your dream career but your dream life, too. Question: What lights you up?

4. Embrace your weirdness

Let people see who you really are regardless of how weird you think that is. Look at your weirdness as a de-selection tool, separating you from the people (bosses, jobs) that are not an authentic match to your awesomeness. When you embrace your weirdness and show people who you really are three amazing things happen:

1. The people who don’t appreciate the real you will disappear (this is a good thing) 2. You’ll find ‘your people’ (the ones who are the same kind of weird) 3. Jobs that require your special kind of weirdness will start to appear (or your current job will expand to embrace the bigger you) Challenge: Write 10 things that are weird and wonderful about you.

5. You are your heroines

Beyonce, Angelina, Oprah, Malala... You are the people who inspire you. If your heroines are all writers, then chances are your dream career could involve penning your thoughts. If they’re ballsy artists, then maybe you’ve got an inner Maya Angelou bursting to come out? If it’s full of yogis, then pick up your phone and find a ‘teacher training’ in your area. Challenge: Write a list of the five people (living or dead) who inspire you the most. For each of them, write the three qualities you admire most. Then look at the list as a whole and circle the three words that resonate with you the most. These three words are the qualities that already exist within you. Go make them happen. You are your heroines.

Your dream job is out there and chances are it’s looking just as hard for you and you are for it.