How to find your vocation and become happy

A blatant truth that is sometimes hard to come by: for life to be enjoyable, you must do what you enjoy. Do exercises to determine your area of interest, strengths, and weaknesses. But first, subscribe to our Telegram channel. We often publish such valuable articles!

1. Answer the main questions: “What do you enjoy?” and “What are you good at?”

During the day, write everything you do on paper. In the evening, rate your enjoyment of each item on a 10-point scale. Do this for a week. Then look at the results and choose the tasks you enjoy the most.

Ask friends and family to answer the questions: “What strengths do I have?” “What advice would you turn to me for? What would I be helpful in?”, “What talents could I develop?”, “What strengths do I not use?” Try to interview as many people as possible to make a portrait objective.

Write out on paper in two columns 20-30 things you enjoy doing and the same number of tasks you do well. Now find a match between the columns.

2. Take a vocational guidance test.

Figuring out what suits you best can be tricky, even if you’ve identified your interests and strengths. For those cases, the Menteora career guidance test can help.

3 Dream about.

Recall what profession you dreamed of as a child, or think about what you’d like to do now. Even if you’ve worked for more than ten years, don’t feel like it’s too late to change. If you haven’t fantasized about any job, try another way. Think about what you would do if you didn’t have to make money. Or ask yourself if you will regret at the end of your life that you didn’t do something, like make a movie. If you have such fears, you must do everything possible to fulfill your dream. If only to save yourself the worry of the future.

4. Cast aside your doubts.

The main enemy on the way to success can be yourself. The attitudes that have settled in your head. They do not allow you to realize your potential and take advantage of opportunities, so you need to work on them.

For example, if you think, “This business won’t make money,” ask yourself: “Is anyone in the world already getting paid for this kind of work?” If the answer is yes, then so can you.

Another hindering attitude is, “I don’t know how to do that.” You can learn much at any age by changing careers at 30, 40, or even 50. For example, one of the wealthiest people in the world, the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, worked on Wall Street until 30 in different positions. The world-famous chef Julia Child could not cook and was a journalist until she was 40.

5. Be creative.

First of all, creativity is valuable. Creativity develops the brain, helps you find new solutions and combat stress. Spending evenings drawing pictures or making music is better than watching TV. Second, you probably have a hidden talent that can become a favorite career source of income. So take a chance and sign up for creative classes: singing, drawing, dancing, and acting.

6. Learn new things.

Read books, listen to podcasts, and watch documentaries, lectures, or informative videos on YouTube about fields with which you are unfamiliar. Space, history, art, medicine — the 21st-century man can access content on any topic.

At the very least, it will pump up your erudition, provide more topics for small talk, and come in handy in the future. And you may find something so interesting that you will begin to study it more deeply and find your vocation.

7. Talk to people in exciting professions.

Get to know people in new and exciting fields for you. You can find them among your acquaintances, on the Internet, or at open lectures or forums. Find out what they do daily, i.e., what their job consists of.

Ask what they like and dislike about the profession. It will help you understand how close it is to you, whether you can handle it and whether it is worth considering as an option for yourself. For example, the profession of a TV host or actor from the side may seem like a solid holiday, but it is costly emotionally and physically. And if the disadvantages of doing something don’t scare you and you feel you could handle it, move on to your dream.

8. Find a mentor.

An experienced mentor will help you open up and give you a head start on your professional growth. A mentor can be your educator, a more experienced colleague, a boss, or a good worker in the professional field you want to enter. To choose such a person, first, decide why you need it: you want to tighten your knowledge, understand what pitfalls there are in the field of activity, or in general, understand yourself better.

Then make a list of potential mentors you know and ask if they are willing to help you. Don’t ask the question head-on, and try not to say the words “mentor” and “mentor”: they can scare off someone who thinks this is a full-time job. Instead, say that you think they are knowledgeable and would love to hear their advice. Offer to set up a lunch meeting. If the first one goes well, arrange them regularly. Read Who a mentor is.

9. Permit yourself to try something else.

You don’t have to hold on to a job that you don’t like. It’s scary to change your routine or profession, but it’s scarier to waste your life doing something you hate. Finding yourself doesn’t have to be afraid. Many successful examples of people have dramatically changed their professional activities.

But you should not cut corners and quit your job if it is your only source of income. For a start, try yourself in new areas in your free time as a freelancer.

10. Participate in competitions.

Professional competitions are an opportunity to gain new knowledge and make valuable acquaintances: they will help your future career. And if you are already working, participation or a prize will be an important line on your resume: great motivation and another step to a happy life (read five ways to stay motivated when you feel like quitting everything).

11. Learn.

Gaining skills and broadening your horizons are always good. New knowledge can come in handy in everyday life, a job you already have, or become your new profession.

You can learn a skill such as cooking or a foreign language or a full-fledged specialty such as a data analyst, web designer, or colorist. Study yourself with video lessons on YouTube, go to classes with a tutor, or sign up for offline or online courses — whatever suits you, the main thing is self-development.

12. Make the world a better place.

If you enjoy helping others and are very responsive to the problems of others, maybe that’s your calling (read How to find your calling). Try your hand at social entrepreneurship and start your own business to help make the world a better place. For example, include a project with accessible sports training (read How to choose a workout for your personality type), a canteen for the homeless, and a company that produces equipment or gadgets for people with disabilities.

Social entrepreneurship includes any classic business whose owners donate a significant portion of profits to social funds and charities. You can find money to implement your social startup on crowdfunding platforms, in venture capital funds, by receiving a grant, or by winning a contest.

Start volunteering if you are not ready to start your own business. Find the center closest to your city: help orphans, homeless animals, the disabled, or other disadvantaged groups.

Take the Menteora career guidance test; artificial intelligence will name your most suitable professions. The accuracy of the test is 70-80% because we use a mathematical-statistical algorithm (read about Menteora's unique career guidance methodology).