What if career exploration wasn't about you?

According to The New York Times columnist David Brooks, "most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling."

For example: a relative suffers from Alzheimer’s, and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease.

Traditional advice tells young people to first find yourself, and then go off and live your quest. Unfortunately, very few students can take an inward journey and come out having discovered a developed self.

What would happen if we freed young people from the burden of finding themselves? Instead, what if they could freely engage with the challenges, problems and opportunities that they feel called to pursue?

Once they choose a challenge, the can then work backwards to construct a life, career and self in service of this cause.

When we help students look beyond the self, we help them create new career possibilities, that they could never have imagined before.

P.S. Thank you Sherry Natkow for the link to the NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html

#careers #nytimes #challengemindset

Thank you Sherry Natkow for the link to the NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html