Passion Catalyst lesson #4 - You are your own best expert

This is a series of lessons learned in my nine years as a Passion Catalyst.

One of the first things I tell new clients is, "I don't have the faintest idea what's best for you." I follow that up with, "What I do have is an unshakable belief that you do!"

Over nine years of watching clients go from confusion to clarity, not once has the answer to what is right for them come from an outside source. They may feel like they don't have the answer at first, but what's really happening is that the answer is simply obscured. It's there; it's just covered up. And our focus is on uncovering it. Think Indiana Jones hacking through the jungle to find the treasure covered in overgrowth. 

What is the number one reason people's self-expertise is obscured? Focus. 

More to the point, they have an over-developed focus on external factors, and under-developed focus on that internal self-expertise. And that isn't a reflection on them. When I hear people get down on themselves because "I'm __ years old and I still don't know what kind of career I would really love," I always respond with one question: "Why would you?"

Think about it. We live in a culture that celebrates action and achievement. But self-awareness? When was the last time you saw an Introspection 101 class? So when our environment focuses our attention on that external aspect, if we happen to stumble into a career we love it's really more luck than anything. 

Want to build your self-expertise? Keep these three pieces of the puzzle in mind:

1. Develop the self-expertise
2. Compile the self-expertise
3. Use the self-expertise

Develop the self-expertise

I think of developing that self-expertise as an excavation process. The answers are there, but they're going to require a little digging. One great place to start is the Passion Factor exploration I mentioned in lesson learned #1 (in a nutshell, identify the common themes present when you feel energized by first asking what you love doing, and then asking why). 

There are a lot of great books with a lot of great approaches to self-exploration (I'm fond of my own e-book, The Occupational Adventure Guide). And that's where your self-expertise starts. Get to know what makes you tick so you can consciously make it part of your decisions. Otherwise it's all guesswork, and that is ineffective at best.

Compile the self-expertise

Another huge mistake I see people making is doing all this self-exploration work and then just letting most of the insights float away. Maybe a percentage of the insights they gained stick with them, but the rest disappear again. Why? It's hard to keep something in your head when your attention is elsewhere. So as they go about the day-to-day business of life, those insights start to drop off the radar screen.

To make the most of the self-expertise you are gaining, compile the key things you learn along the way. Think of it as creating a reference guide to what makes you tick. Instead of leaving it on pages and pages and pages of a journal, for example, summarize the key points on one page for an at-a-glance view of what you have discovered. 

You can create various categories for it, for example:

• What energizes me
• Ways I get in my own way
• Questions to frequently ask
• Dangers to be aware of

Not only will this give you a useable reference guide as you make decisions going into the future, it will also serve as an ongoing reminder. The question I always ask my clients is, "How much of this will you remember in five years when you haven't been intensely focused on it week in and week out?" Your self-expertise is only as robust as what you can remember. 

Use the self-expertise

Self-expertise is great, but it's little more than glorified navel-gazing if you don't do something with it. The great thing about compiling your insights in one place is that now you have a tool you can use as you move forward. 

For example, in my work with clients I have them make a list of the underlying themes that tend to be present when they're on fire (which we identified by exploring what they love doing and why). Putting those in one place creates what I describe as an internal compass. It's a distillation of where the energy comes from that they can use to both generate ideas and evaluate options. It takes the guesswork out of the process. 

If you do lots of great self-exploration, but then it stays buried in a file in a drawer, the odds are good that you will only harness a fraction of its value. Make the most out of the time and effort you have invested by summarizing the insights you gain in an easily digestible format. Then make a habit of referring to it frequently. 

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The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Comments

[Dr. Susan Bernstein]

I'm TOTALLY with you on this one, Curt! Yes, yes, we have everything we need inside of ourselves. AND, sometimes, we need a companion by our side, or even a tribe, to help that wisdom to emerge.

That's why I call my own work, "Work from Within." It's both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it's your career, sourced from the inside. As a verb, it's about finding, listening to, and trusting your inner wisdom.

Often, clients will ask me, "What SHOULD I do?" Sometimes, I'll teasingly let them know that I'm not a career psychic. Besides, if I was, telling them what they should "be" would prevent them from discovering the gift of their inner knowing. And that's way too precious a gift to pass by.

Kudos to you for pointing this out, Curt!

[Curt Rosengren]

Yup. And telling them what they should be has a number of other downsides as well.

First, we're just as likely to be wrong as right (after all, our perception of what people should do is inherently affected by the lens we're looking through, which has nothing to do with their lives).

And even if we were spot on with our assessment, the reality is that most people wouldn't actually listen. There's a funny paradox that so many people are looking outside for an answer, but they don't really want to be told what to do.

Finally, if people find the answer from outside, when things get bumpy it's too easy to point the finger at someone else and play the victim. Finding their own answer creates a foundation of personal accountability for their choices and their actions.