Last week I gave a talk about how to build a new career from scratch.

Especially when you have absolutely no clue how this career or new venture could look like, it can feel quite overwhelming and intimidating.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Creating an amazing new career path can be easier than you think.

No magic needed.

The only thing you need are some guiding principles & the right mindset, and then things will start to flow.

 

But one step after the other. Let’s do this together.

 

Not knowing the answer can be your greatest opportunity  

 

You’ve probably heard me saying this quote from Richard Branson before. And you’ll probably hear me repeating it many times more. So you better get used to it.

But I really cannot stress enough, how important it is to remain in the unknown for a while. Without stressing, without putting pressure on yourself to get the answers asap, without talking yourself down and calling yourself a looser because you haven’t figured things out.

I want to you to tap yourself on the shoulder and embrace this moment of “not knowing” as a great starting point.

 

Look for the right guidance and tools

 

On your journey to creating a great new career path, look out for the right tools to support you.

By the right tools I mean those tools that’ll give you the right amount of guidance and orientation without forcing you to anticipate an outcome and without pushing you in a certain direction.

Look for tools that allow the answers to grow and develop organically as you move forward, like Life Designing does.

Look for tools that allow you to change direction whenever you feel it’s necessary without leaving you with the sensation of “failure”, because you didn’t stick to the plan.

Because you DID stick to the plan. Your plan is to build a career and life path that is truly aligned with yourself. 

 

Allow your new career path to be a co-creation

 

The best and most fulfilling careers, in my point of view, are those careers where you can combine what you do best with what the world needs most. And there’re endless ways of turning this formula into a job or professional venture. Or even a side hustle or pro-bono work.

But to get there, you need to make this quest a co-creation, and not a one-way street.

And you need to starts out with a humble attitude.

You need to be humble enough not to anticipate how everyone will react to your professional idea.

Because anticipating is not co-creating.

To co-create, you have to start on your end with a “prototype” of your idea and share it with the world, your target group, or even with a future employer.

And then you have to take in their feedback and reaction. Open-minded and always looking for valuable insights, even in the rejections or negative answers that you receive.

In the beginning, these rejections might be your most valuable pieces of information what’s really wanted and needed, and what not.

Then you go back to your “drawing board” and modify your idea according to the feedback, and put it out there again.

Over time, playing this co-designing game back and forth, a new job or venture will take shape.

Organically.

And maybe far different from what you initially had in mind.

This is what happened to me.

When I started my career change, I had something quite different in mind.

Luckily I was open enough to adapt my ideas over and over again according to the world’s feedback and according to my gut feeling.

This has been the best and only way how I could design what I’m doing today.

To co-design something I’m loving, something I’m really good at, and something the world really needs.

 

So when do you start your Co-Design?