5 Signs You’re In The Right Career

Medical Life
November 19, 2023

How do I know if being a doctor is right for me? What if I make the wrong career decision? How will I know?

Feeling worried about our career choices is totally valid. After all, we spend about 80,000 hours just on our career alone: that’s 40 hours a week, 50 weeks per year, for 40 years until we retire.

This means your career is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make in your life.

However, most career advice are about how to apply for different jobs (write resume, ace interviews, research for employment etc.) — but not how to decide what career to pick in the first place.

And that’s why many of us are unhappy in our jobs, because we’ve never been taught how to pick a career that is suitable for us. We think it’s about the monthly salary we’ll receive; or the benefits that come with it; or the company and whether it will increase our social status.

But let me tell you — picking a career is so much more than that.

Because the last thing you want is to switch careers, only to face the same problems again — burned out, stressed, depressed, dissatisfied and frustrated.

So, how do you know what career is right for you?

Firstly, we have to understand that a career is not a one-size-fit-all. Every single human being is extremely unique – what you laugh at, what gives you a kick, what moves you, what pushes your button, what you pay attention to, where you get bored and where you get uplifted. This is not random.

Secondly, life is sending you signals all the time about who you are, what you love and where your purpose lies. The clues are in the form of the activities, situations, people, and tasks which you encounter daily. Some of these you dislike, some you withstand, some you barely notice, but some of them create in you a strong positive emotional reaction – especially the things you LOVE.

We can think of these as your Red Threads.

What are Red Threads? Think of it like a tapestry on a wall. When you look from afar, it looks just like a normal picture. But when you come closer, you can see many thousands of fabric threads that make up that picture.

The same is true of any day of your life. You have a thousand different activities, moments, situations and contexts every day. In other words, your days are a fabric of many different threads – some black, some grey, some white, a little up, a little down. But some of them, however, are red.

These Red Thread activities are energy-giving for you. They lift you up and nourish your soul. You get a sense of high and feel as if time goes by fast when you perform these activates.

The most effective people discipline themselves to find these Red Threads every day.

The 5 Red Threads

How do we determine these Red Threads? Here are five ways you can discover them:

1. Flow

Flow is the state of being in which you lose track of time in a particular activity. An hour feels like a minute because you are so immersed in your work. You are fully present. It is the intersection between what you are good at and what challenges you – where difficulty and competency meet, so you’re neither bored because it’s too easy, nor anxious because it’s too hard.

People also describe this state as ‘euphoric’ or ‘in the zone’. It can happen during almost any physical or mental activity, and often when both are combined.

People in flow report the experience as having these sorts of attributes:

Experiencing complete involvement in the activity
Feeling a sense of ecstasy or euphoria
Having great inner clarity – knowing just what to do and how to do it
Being totally calm and at peace
Feeling as if time were standing still – or disappearing in an instant

Ask yourself: When was the last time you felt like time flew by? What were you doing?

2. Alive

When you do something that makes you feel alive, you feel very energised rather than drained. There is a feeling of excitement or rapture in your heart. It is the thing that gets you up first thing in the morning, and something you look forward to doing.

Ask yourself: What activity or topic that makes you feel alive or excited?

3. Comfort

This happens when you feel a sense of contentment — like it just feels right. Call it gut instinct or intuition, when something is right, you can just feel it in your body. It is when you feel like you belong, and this is where you are meant to be.

Ask yourself: When was the last time you felt content or at ease, when performing an activity?

4. Natural

This occurs when performing a certain activity seems natural to you. It just clicks. It feels like second nature, like it’s a part of you. It may look like work to others, but play to you. It may look hard for others, but easy and seamless for you.

Ask yourself: What are some things that come natural to you — easy for you but hard for others?

5. Attention

These are things you instinctively pay attention to that other people don’t.

For example, you might work as a doctor in the hospital and was asked to perform a chest tube insertion on a patient. While others might not think much about the chest tube, you on the other hand, might be ruminating deeply about the equipment: How was the chest tube made? Who made it? What brand and company is it from? What’s the company revenue? How much is the profit margin?

To put simply, is there a pattern of things that you’re picking up on that others are not? These are good places to start.

Pay attention to the things that pique your interest. If something pops up out of nowhere that makes you sit up and pay attention, follow up on learning more about it. Follow the clues.

When you find things you enjoy, then do them. Because they will lead you to more.

Experiment — Identify Your Red Threads

A simple way you can identify your Red Threads is by taking a blank piece of paper with you for a week. Draw a line down the middle of it. Then, write ‘Like’ on one column, and ‘Dislike’ on another.

Next, whenever you experience any sign of a Red Thread, you can write them down in the paper. It could be a moment when you felt in flow while mastering a specific task. Or a time when you felt energised at work. Or it could be a brief moment when you instinctively volunteered for something.

Be aware of these moments, and catch them by scribbling them all down under the ‘Like’ column.

The same goes to moments when time seems to drag on forreveeerrrrrr while doing something. Or the times when you procrastinate and are desperate to hand over a task to someone else because you just can’t wait to get rid of it. Jot them down under the ‘Dislike’ column.

By the end of one week, see what’s in the ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ column. If there is nothing in the ‘Like’ column, then you must do it again the next week. But pay closer attention this time.

If you still get no Red Threads at all for two weeks in a row, then you have a loveless job.

Do you experience any Red Thread in your work? If yes, then kudos to you. If not, then it’s probably time to explore other avenues.

Or else, remain in a loveless career path.

Nevertheless, know that you deserve so much more than that.

I’m rooting for you 💪🏻

P.S.: Are you a doctor who is burned out and feeling stuck in your profession? You want to discover a more fulfilling alternative career, but you’re not really sure how… Then join our upcoming workshop: Alternative Careers for Doctors 👩🏻‍⚕️👨🏻‍⚕️

REGISTER NOW: https://awakenacademy.co/workshop/

Hello! I am Christal

I'm a doctor, trainer, coach and author of 'Should I Quit?'. I founded Awaken Academy, where we help doctors discover alternative careers that are fulfilling and aligned with their true Self.

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