Is Your Career in the Zone?

Whether in the arts, sports, in diet fads, or in this case your career, the “zone” implies an optimal state of being, an emotional, mental and physical condition of peak performance. What contributes to this state and how one achieves it is a question that many coaches,  teachers, and even nutritionists try to answer.  Career coaches and counselors work towards helping clients find the right career that will achieve success and peak performance by exploring the client’s abilities, experience and interests.

A good place to start to explore potential careers is to investigate what areas of interest deeply satisfy you. Interests, provide the source from which you will be more likely to develop your talents and abilities and interests will guide you towards environments of likeminded people where there is more comfort and support. All too often, when people are searching for their right career, they think too narrowly about careers as in: “Do I want be a lawyer or a teacher?”, rather than: “What are the characteristics of the activities involved in that career that I love to do”. I have seen clients ranging from recent graduates to executives derail their careers by failing to satisfy and to balance their varied interests and ending up in the wrong line of work.

Some of the most widely used career interest tests are based on John Hollands’ system of categorizing work activities into six different themes codes called the RIASEC. These are defined as:  Realistic-building, repairing, outdoors ; Investigative-research, academic, mathematical, scientific; Artistic-creative interests in writing, drama, art; Social-helping, teaching ; Enterprising-selling, managing, persuading; Conventional-accounting, organizing, data.  Often it is the combination of interests which create the richest profiles of suitable careers. For example, a sales executive, dissatisfied at work may discover interests in broader themes areas beyond just the Enterprising category. Combined with something like Artistic, (primarily in writing) and Social, other careers such as marketing, public relations and advertising, could give this sales exec an opportunity for greater fulfillment.

You can find out more information about these interest areas in career books and through career professionals. To understand how they work in your career, think about the recurring themes and patterns of what you liked to do in your education, your hobbies and your work. Think about the areas of work that you currently have and ask yourself whether they satisfy your top three themes of interest. Start researching and exploring careers that may have the right balance for you. Once you find that fit, once you experience the fulfillment of working in all of your interest areas, your career will be in the zone.