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Following are a few important points about career for everyone, not just new graduates. These were probably not discussed in school, or it didn*t seem important at the time. It should now, and the wisdom provided here can make the difference between a good or bad career experience:

Careers are discovered and evolve through trial and error.
* No one can tell you what you*re career should be. It's a 50-year journey to figure it out, and like everyone, you get started and can always change later. You will whether you want to or not. The low average is four or five careers before you retire, and doubts about your choices persist throughout your career.

* What little we know about career callings is they reflect a deep interest you have in doing something, and it's not always what you do best. It's what you enjoy doing most, and you keep coming back to it for the pleasure it provides. You'll know when you*re in the wrong job because it requires talents you don*t have or are not motivated to use, or it suppresses the talents you have or like using.

Do what you love, but make it a priority to find ways to love what you do.
* In exchange for getting to do what you love, you have to demonstrate that you love what you do. Make a commitment to become your best, do your best, and to give more than you receive. Get any entitlement stuff out of your head and develop a mindset of gratitude, and intentionally avoid whining, complaining, or finding faults. You have to earn the right to keep what you love, and despite the love analogy, it's still business.

* Problems are inevitable because the world in which we live is not perfect and not everything is likely to go your way. Learn to recognize the agreeable middle ground in everything and everyone, and work from there. Most if not all problems are traceable back to pride and issues between people. Learn to communicate, be humble, sociable, flexible, and get along with others. Employers tend to select, promote and retain the people they like most.

Rethink expectations about job satisfaction because it's controlled by employers and used to attract and keep your nose to their grindstone.
* Realize that jobs, promotions, income, benefits, bonuses, stock options, working conditions, training and good supervision all keep you dependent on employers. They own all these things and you have to earn them. There are no guarantees and they can instantly disappear despite all your hard work and plans. Ask anyone whose been laid off, even if just once.

* Far more important is your career contentment. The things you own and control independent of any employers: You*re thoughts and emotions, reasoning abilities, talents and interests, how you choose to use them, and your right to change your mind and direction any time. These are the more reliable things that give you pleasure and the independence to pursue and enjoy the jobs, careers and satisfactions you desire. You take them with you when you leave the dissatisfactions behind. Focus on these because this is what the employer wants in exchange for those illusive and unreliable satisfactions. For more information visit our website.

Despite aging, never underestimate or fail to utilize the power of your imagination.
* Near the middle of your 50-year journey, it will suddenly occur to you that your greatest accomplishments can be linked back to what you previously imagined for yourself. You lose sight of this magic as it's happening because you*re too busy to notice, and when you do notice, you'll think it's too late to start imagining new things for yourself. Wrong!

* While 60% of your total waking hours will be devoted to your work or thinking about it, you'll never keep pace with your imagination, and it works for as long as you live. Always schedule and take your vacations, and use this time exclusively to play, dream and use your imagination. It affords you the most efficient and least expensive means for fueling how you feel, what you do, and also the results you achieve.

Careers flow and sometimes into unexpected directions, but the one constant between all your jobs will be your desire for contentment derived from work made meaningful by use of your talents to fulfill your callings. Your contentment is so important that you may find yourself leaving a great job to find it elsewhere, or even tolerating a less than satisfying job just for the pleasure it provides. That's because fulfilling your purpose is more important to you than fulfilling the employer's purpose, and you can*t be paid enough to not want to use your talents.

We pride ourselves on explaining employment and career like never before. To learn more, please visit our website, and while there, join the campaign to retire job dissatisfaction.

* 2007 by Jeff Garton All Rights Reserved