Your Perfect Fit Career: How to Find a Career Path You’re Obsessed With
How amazing would it feel to wake up every morning feeling energised about your day ahead, knowing you get to spend it being lit up in your purpose, doing work you love and in a way that honours your true nature?
As a soulful woman, this is the dream, right?
But, as I’m sure you have come to know – it’s not as easy as it sounds to find your perfect fit career; one that is deeply fulfilling; allows you to express your sensitive gifts, and that lights you up on all levels.
Is it possible? 100% yes!
I am proof that it is possible, but I by no means did I end up on this path overnight. In fact it has taken me years and years of struggle, going down the wrong paths and so taking many detours along the way before I figured it out.
And now, *finally* I’ve landed in a place that I feel truly grateful to be in, with a career that fuels my soul, and that allows me the freedom and flexibility to design my days around my energy.
And after all of the years I spent stuck in the wrong career, living for the weekends and feeling like I was in constant recovery mode after burning out yet again – I know it’s my purpose to support my fellow sensitive souls on this path to finding career alignment and designing a life that is a reflection of your true self.
While each of us has our own gifts that we bring to the world, from my own journey I’ve learned that there are three core elements that create an aligned career – or what I call your career sweet spot.
These core ingredients are - love, money and flow.
Your dream career lies at the intersection of these ingredients and finding alignment between all three is the key to unlocking your sweet spot – and is in many ways, is like winning the career lottery!
When only one or two of these ingredients exist without the others, it creates an imbalance, and while it’s definitely possible to still make your career work - there will always be a part of you that feels disconnected, drains your energy, or leaves you yearning for more.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these core career building blocks.
01. Love.
The first building block is all about Love and finding career alignment on a soul level. We need to feel connected to the work we’re doing in order for it to feel meaningful and give us a reason to keep getting up and going to work each day.
As soul-led empaths, we are deep feelers with big hearts, so having this connection with our work is essential. Without it, we’re left feeling empty and constantly questioning ‘what is the point?’.
It’s hard to feel excited, inspired or energized about work when we’re not being driven by a greater purpose.
I remember back in my corporate career feeling so disconnected from the work I was doing. It felt like the only thing that was valued was the bottom line and making sure we met our budget. The message about hitting the numbers was driven home to us on a daily basis and honestly, it just made my skin crawl. It literally felt like this was the only thing that mattered – and when this is the case, it’s really hard to stay motivated and actually enjoy our work.
This misalignment of fulfilment in our work can also be there even if we like what we’re doing well enough and we get paid for it.
While money absolutely does play an important role in our career (we’ll talk about this next), if this is the only thing that’s driving us, it will not lead to cultivating a life where we’re doing meaningful and enjoyable work in the world.
It’s also important to note that regardless of the work we’re doing, not everyday needs to be all rainbows and sunshine, but it should be that most days we’re able to find some joy and meaning in our work.
In her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert describes this as choosing your favorite flavor of sh*t sandwich – regardless of the work we’re doing there will always be days when we have to do uncomfortable things that we don’t *love* but as long as there’s an undercurrent of deeper meaning and purpose that exists in our work, we can still find that career alignment.
Some questions to ask yourself:
What lights you up?
What sparks your curiosity ?
What do you find yourself naturally gravitating towards when you don’t have to be somewhere or have a deadline looming?
What topics / subjects could you spend all day learning about and would never get bored of?
02. Money
When it comes to our career, money is an essential part of the alignment equation. Because, without it, we just end up finding ourselves with a hobby we love. And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having hobbies and creative outlets (these are actually super important!), when we want to make a living out of our work in the world, we need to ensure money is factored into the equation.
Money is created when we are solving a big enough problem for people that they are willing to exchange money for it.
According to marketing expert Sean Welham, there are seven main reasons that people will pay for something:
To make more money – eg education, career and business coaching, investment advice
To align with our values – eg. eco friendly sustainable products, electric cars
To look better and improve our status – eg, beauty products, weight loss solutions, European cars and designer handbags
To save time – eg paying for an accountant to do your taxes, hiring a website designer, meal delivery service
To have fun and experience joy – holidays, travel, entertainment, concert tickets
To feel safe and have peace of mind – eg insurance, safety equipment
Comfort and to feel better – massage therapy, acupuncture, air conditioners, cozy slippers and candles.
When our intention is to make money, we need to align our career decisions with the value we’re creating for people, ensuring that there is a market of people who are willing to pay for it.
This is true regardless of whether you want to start a business or work for someone else - the value exchange must be there in order for money to be created.
If you’re in a career that’s not making as much money as you’d like, it simply means there's a misalignment between the work you’re doing and the value this is creating in the world.
To figure out how much money you need to make, it's imperative to consider the vision you have for your life and the kind lifestyle you want to live.
It’s also essential to note that when it comes to money *more* does not equal improved happiness and fulfilment.
We’re constantly being bombarded with marketing and advertising messages that we need the latest shoes, sneakers, TVs and computers and there’s always a strong undercurrent that bigger = better - a bigger house, TV, shoe collection etc - but from what I’ve learned, none of these material things contribute to our personal happiness.
We can feel just as content living with less, so when it comes to money, more definitely doesn’t equate to happiness.
I suggest figuring out an “enough” number that you need to live on comfortably, factoring in your desired lifestyle (and not skimping on things you value!).
Once you’re clear on this number, this gives you a solid starting point to figure out suitable career options.
For me personally, I am very content living a slow and simplified life. I’m a homebody and love spending time at home, so I am more than happy to save money on things like eating out at restaurants and going on expensive trips. I also don’t need a big home – as a minimalist I am much happier with less clutter and “stuff” and I am very intentional about the things that I buy.
This approach has helped guide me to making career decisions around money that are very much in alignment with who I am and what I value.
03. Flow
Finding and experiencing flow in your work is the final piece of the puzzle in uncovering your career sweet spot and when this aligns, we’re doing work that honors our unique gifts and natural genius.
Each of us is born with core abilities and strengths that we naturally excel in – of course this doesn’t mean we don’t need to put in effort, but rather they are things that come easily to us.
The fact they come so easily to often makes it hard to recognize our own gifts – and why it can be helpful to ask other people to reflect back to you what they think you’re naturally gifted in.
Like any rare and magical treasures, these gifts are usually buried deep within us, often under layers of societal conditioning of trying to mask our sensitivities.
So fair warning: it may require some excavation work for your gifts to see the light of day.
When social worker turned soulful copywriter, Che Johnson embarked on her career change journey the path was definitely not linear and she had many ‘filler’ jobs, serving as stepping stones along the way, before landing in a business that allowed her natural gifts shine through.
Although there were signs of her sensitive superpowers along the way (Che’s business journey can be traced back to starting a blog!) It wasn't until she began connecting the dots and creating alignment between work she loved; what people would pay her for and where she had natural flow with her work - did this become clear.
Here’s the thing: those things that come naturally to you are your gifts and your ultimate superpowers. You may not recognize them at first, because they come so effortlessly to you.
But if you take a closer look and start paying attention to the signs: the things people compliment you for; admire you for; and are always asking for your advice on… These are your gifts to share with the world and if properly nurtured, will become your greatest asset.
For us soulful folk, uncovering our strengths (or sensitive superpowers as I like to call them!) also comes down to where you get your energy from – the activities that fuel you with energy instead of sucking the life out of you.
Our soul work, and the work we are truly made for, gives us life force energy, rather than depletes us.
Your job is to start paying attention to the signs:
What activities do you lose yourself in and feel like no time has passed at all?
What moments in your life or work have left you feeling completely connected, confident and in flow with what you were doing?
What energizes you?
What drains you?
So there you have it - the three core ingredients for creating career alignment and uncovering your career sweet spot.
When one of these elements is out of whack it creates an imbalance that leads us to feeling frustrated and resentful in our work, instead of feeling alignment and ease in our career.
For example, if we spend too much time focused on finding flow and fulfillment, doing work we love, but don’t factor money into the equation it leaves us broke and unable to pay our bills.
Or, perhaps if we focus too much on making money, but fail to factor in finding work that we find fulfilling and that’s out of alignment with our values, we can end up finding ourselves in a place that lacks meaning and purpose, which results in looking for ways to fill the massive void in our life, and often leading us down unhelpful paths.
Has this helped to shed new light on finding alignment in your career? Let me know in the comments!
