By Bernadette Kathryn, LMT, IHLC


 

We all have a purpose in life, something that we contribute to the community, a career of some kind. Hopefully, this is also something that contributes to our sense of personal well-being & satisfaction, something that brings us more than just a paycheck.

 

Our society demands that we spend a certain amount of time working to take care of ourselves, our families, our financial responsibilities.  We often go to school to learn a special technique, trade, language, skill to apply to our career that will provide us with the success that we seek in our jobs. Our jobs can be anything from being a stay at home mom managing a healthy household to a Lawyer or Entrepreneur.  It doesn’t really matter what job we choose, what matters is that we are consciously contributing to society and that job is somehow feeding our soul or purpose.

 

Too many times in life people get caught up in doing a job that is not personally fulfilling and that can become the seed that feeds negativity in their life. We have to give 40+ hours a week to doing a job that we’ll possibly do for many years to provide for ourselves, our families, our necessities and creature comforts.

 

We have have to commute, take work home sometimes, possibly travel and spend a lot to time at work.  When we don’t like our job or profession, it can take a toll on our health, our families and wreak havoc in our lives. Your career is a topic that deserves much thought and reflection, considering all the possible good and bad it has to offer.

 

Is there a magic formula for finding the perfect career?  I don’t think so, although I do believe that an in-depth look at your personal aptitudes is an excellent place to begin the conversation.

 

An organization like Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, which is a non-profit educational foundation that is committed to helping others make healthy informed decisions about school and work. This organization has been around since 1922 helping hundreds of thousands of people learn more about themselves and derive more satisfaction out of their lives.

 

Aptitudes are natural talents and special abilities for doing, or learning to do, certain kinds of things. Musical ability, spatial awareness & visualization, memory for numbers, and problem solving are examples of such aptitudes. In an extensive & comprehensive battery of tests available only through the Foundation, these and many other aptitudes are measured. These measured traits are highly stable over long-term periods, they are what make you — uniquely you!

 

Your natural aptitudes have little to do with intelligence, knowledge, or education. Aptitude testing is an invaluable tool for making career and educational decisions that will last you your lifetime.  Every occupation; engineering, medicine, law, management, music — uses certain aptitudes. The work you are most likely to enjoy and be successful in is work that uses your aptitudes, you will find it more personally rewarding.