'What should I do with my life?': A Harvard-trained career expert tells us exactly how to answer
Suzy Welch knows from experience that many people aren't. Not yet. She's spent over 15 years developing and testing a methodology to help people discover their "authentic purpose," based on:
Welch calls it "Becoming You." Through her course at NYU Stern School of Business, workshops, and private sessions, she's seen thousands of people learn about themselves in hopes of answering the question: "What should I do with my life?"
CNBC Make It put "Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career" on our first book club shortlist because, as Welch writes, "most of us struggle with this our whole lives." If you haven't had a chance to read, or could use a quick recap before Wednesday's discussion in our private LinkedIn group, here are a few key takeaways:
Welch divides her book into three parts accordingly:
Your values are "your authentic wants, needs, and desires. Your deeply held beliefs about how your life — and life in general — should be," Welch writes.
Welch spent years, as part of her PhD research and beyond, "identifying, testing, validating, and codifying" what she considers the 15 "core human values." They include, for example:
The Values Bridge assessment Welch created "reflects the distance between your current life and the one you should be living, and would if you could," she writes. "The hard part is what to do next: figuring out how to build that bridge to the future."
You might think you already know what you're good at, but "identifying your aptitudes almost always does take work," Welch writes.
First, she explains, it's important to understand that aptitudes aren't skills or competencies, which we acquire and practice through education or training. "Aptitudes those things. They're the inborn faculties that make us good or better at certain skills, competencies, and areas of expertise."
Welch identifies eight cognitive aptitudes, all of which fall on a spectrum. They include, for example:
She also highlights four personality traits she believes are particularly important in the process of "Becoming You," including "wonderment," which is all about curiosity and currency, as in being current about what's going on in your job function, industry, and more.
Knowing your values and aptitudes isn't enough. Welch often sees her students struggle. "What kind of work calls them emotionally and engages them intellectually, they wonder, and is it tenable as a life and lifestyle they desire?"
So the third part of the process is about figuring out their interests and the corresponding opportunities — "the jobs, companies, and industries that make up the world of work today" and "the economic trends on the horizon."
If you think of values, aptitudes, and economically viable interests as intersecting circles, that spot at the center where all three overlap is your purpose, or what Welch calls your "Area of Transcendence." Finding it is the ultimate goal of the "Becoming You" methodology.
"One of the hardest things to know in life is ourselves," Welch writes. But the methodology is "deeply personal," and "for Becoming You to work, it cannot be performative," she writes. "The process requires radical honesty with yourself."
This is one of the reasons she uses so many assessments, exercises, and challenges in the "Becoming You" process, many of which she includes as appendices in the book. They're meant to help you go beyond the superficial answers.
"It can be fearsome, humbling, and occasionally embarrassing to admit who we are. But we truly do need to know so that we can set out on the journey toward who it is we must become."
Welch, who writes that she hates platitudes, might nevertheless agree with these two: People change. Things change.
Becoming You "is not intended as a prescription, a one and done," she writes. It "is meant to be a forever thing, a way of thinking and sorting things out that you return to at every crossroads, time and again."
Want to talk about it? Request to join our LinkedIn group, and come talk with us and Welch on Wednesday, July 30, at 10 a.m. ET, at our next CNBC Make It Book Club discussion.
In the meantime, you can also read Welch's recent articles, including on signs you're living a "B+ life" and the No. 1 question you should ask in a job interview that "cuts through the BS."
Any questions for the author? Email them to us in advance at askmakeit@cnbc.com, using the subject line "Question for Suzy Welch."
Hoping to get ahead on the next book? Our August pick is "Rich AF: The Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life" by Vivian Tu.
Have suggestions for future picks? Send them to us at askmakeit@cnbc.com, using the subject line "Make It book club suggestion."
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On a small remaining patch, Akon may build a resort.
