Have you ever played the game with your best friend where you start dreaming about your dream job but are always able to come up with some reason that it would still stink? My friend & I have come up with ideas like "I'd love to be a food critic & be able to eat at all of the new restaurants in town! Oh, but then I'd also have to write critical reviews of some of the restaurants & I'd hate having to do that to people." Or, "Wouldn't it be cool to be a travel guide? Ugh I can already see myself getting super stressed out about keeping to a schedule & turning into a strict school teacher."  

Here's the deal...this doesn't mean that there aren't any good options out there for you. This is typical brain behavior. Back int he caveman days, we had to be constantly alert for danger when discovering something new...

"Strangers! Have they come to sing Christmas carols to us or do they want to eat us?"

While our brains have made tremendous progress over time, this negativity bias is still in place & is there to protect us from anything unfamiliar because that portio of our brain still thinks that unfamiliar is likely dangerous. That's why the negatives come flooding to us so quickly as soon as we try to come up with a dream job.

"Well that's nice, you say. At least now I know why my brain keeps reminding me of all the reasons that the grass won't be greener on the other side. But what can I do about it?"

One great, and deceptively simple, tip is to simply spend some more time paying attention to your thoughts, especially those negative ones. Once you catch yourself automatically coming up with the negatives, stop & acknowledge what just happened, then give the positive thoughts their fair share of consideration before moving on to the less postive ones.

Here's how this can play out. The next time you find yourself sitting at lunch having the dream job conversation, catch yourself when you say "I'd love to be a chef, but those baggy pants really don't work with my short legs", pause yourself once you realize what just happened there. Then realize that this was just your overprotective brain trying to keep you from being eaten alive & move back to the postives for a bit "Now, what else would be super cool about being a chef...I could spend time around delicious food all the time, I could say things like sousvide on a daily basis, or I could have people yes "YES CHEF!" whenever I asked them to do something.

And before I head off to culinary school myself, go ahead & click the Book Your Free Call button at the top of this screen & we can see how I might be able to dig even further into helping your figure out your career passion!