Today I am going to take you on a journey to experience your dream career and discover how to make it a reality…

Many of you will be familiar with the mad hatter’s tea party in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Alice falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world where she meets lots of weird and wonderful creatures and one of her adventures includes becoming a guest at a ‘mad’ tea-party.

Like Alice, imagine for a moment falling down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world.  This world is a fantasy world of careers, within which you are only allowed positive thoughts.  Everyone behaves positively, thinks positively and feels good about themselves.  Furthermore, everyone loves their job and you do too!  In fact, you have just started a new job.  This is your ideal job and is a dream come true.  It is what you have always wanted to do, combining your skills, interests and values within an environment where you will thrive.  Life is pretty good right now. You are feeling confident, enjoying life and achieving in what you do.

After your first day at work in your new job, you have been invited to a tea-party.  This tea party has some very special guests attending who are really interested in what you are now doing and where your career path has taken you.  Before you arrive, they wonder what you have achieved.  Have you had a career change?  Have you returned to work?  Have you progressed successfully in your current role?

It’s time for the guests to find out about your dream job…

During the tea party you are served your favourite cup of tea and given a comfortable arm chair to sit on.  You feel relaxed, yet still full of excitement about your new job.  The guests are keen to hear every detail about your first day and so you proceed to tell them.  Remember, you are only allowed to be positive and you must give your guests every detail!

Take the time now to write down what you told your guests about your first day.  Include detail about your day such as what you were wearing, how you got to work, what the surroundings at work are like, who was there, what you did in the morning and in the afternoon. Where did you go and who did you see?  The guests are also keen to hear about what you hope to achieve in your job so write this down too. Remember, this is your ideal job and is a dream come true.

What you need to do after the tea party to make your dream a reality…

When returning to the real world, you feel excited having imagined being in your dream job and would love to start making steps towards making it a reality.  However, there is a risk your dreams will be shattered, preventing you from trying careers that suit you.  The main risk factor to look out for is negative thoughts.

Conquer your negative thoughts

As you step out of the rabbit hole, you are immediately knocked sideways by a voice shouting:

‘I WILL NEVER GET MY DREAM JOB’

You realise it is your own voice.  It didn’t take long for the protection of your negative thoughts to kick in, did it?  The thoughts that protect you from trying new things and risking failing.  The voice that might as well be saying:

‘I CAN’T DO IT’

The first thing you need to do to minimise the negative impact of this thinking on your chances of achieving your dream job, is to replace your ‘I can’t do it’ phrase with ‘I can do it’. 

‘I CAN DO IT’

The more you say, ‘I can do it’, the weaker your negative thoughts will become, and you will increase your chances of success and be free to start taking steps towards your ideal job.

(To find out more about tackling your negative thoughts, do have a read of my article ‘Four simple words that can transform your career’ where you will find four steps to help you transform your career.)

Keep fantasizing

The next thing you need to do is keep your end vision in sight.  Keep reminding yourself of what you wrote down about your dream career and keep taking small steps towards it.

Your vision combined with an ‘I CAN DO IT’ attitude will help to give you the best chance of achieving the best career path for you.

‘I have heard it said that the first ingredient of success – the earliest spark in the dreaming youth – is this: dream a great dream.’   (John A. Appleman, lawyer)

 

(If you are finding the fantasy exercise tricky, have a read of my blog ‘How to redesign your career now!’, to help you discover suitable career options that best suit your personality.)