By Annie Thunnell
“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”
“Do what you love.” seems to be a piece of advice regularly given to college student decision makers—you know what I’m talking about. I’m sure your Uncle John was just telling you this at the annual family reunion. However, such advice is usually paired with the expectation that “what you love” is something prestigious, lucrative, and exciting. This counsel, rather than being helpful, might lead further questions to emerge in students’ minds: “What do I love?” “Is what I love going to make me a lot of money?” “Will what I enjoy be flexible enough to manage with my family?” The stress and indecisiveness remains. “What should I do?” continues to be the ever-prevalent question.
I don’t know about you, but each of these questions have definitely crossed my mind as I have considered different majors and career possibilities. Especially being a psychology major, I have frequently been asked the question, “Well, what do you plan to do with that degree?” My personal favorite comment was given a couple of weeks ago––“What is the difference between a psychology major and a pizza?...A pizza can feed a family of four!” Whether such comments might be well-intentioned or not, they can be discouraging and might lead one to reconsider their career path and even their inner sense of purpose.
Such comments reflect common myths relating to career selection. One myth I find interesting is that the major students select in college will determine their career and life FOREVER. For some individuals, educational experiences do lead to specific occupations and reflect a linear career path. However, this is not the case for everyone. In fact, current studies show that only 27% of undergraduate degree holders are working in fields that are closely aligned with their college majors (Abel & Deitz, 2012). In other words, many people change careers over their lifetimes as they further learn about themselves and grow. Clearly, placing too much pressure on rapidly choosing a major and career is not the answer. Students should instead break down the decision making process into meaningful steps that allow space for the consideration of a variety of meaningful career paths and, most importantly, lead to a life filled with purpose.
While there are many different approaches to developing a purposeful path, one in particular is the Design Your Life approach from the Stanford Design Thinking school. Design Thinking as a methodology is focused on creatively solving complex problems (Stevens, 2020). This approach breaks down problems into five simple steps: empathize (understand the target audience and the problem at hand), define (define the problem clearly), ideate (create as many ideas as possible), prototype (create simpler versions of ideas you plan to test), and test (enact your prototype and evaluate what happens) (Stevens, 2020). Such a 5-step approach can be applied to a variety of settings, including career-decision making. Stanford Professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans created the Design Your Life approach to solving problems in a career-decision making context (Burnett, 2021). Here are the 5 steps they came up with in working towards a career and ultimately a life filled with purpose:
1. Empathize: Connect the dots
First off, it is important to find the link between who you are, what you believe, and what you do. Connecting one’s meaning at work to one’s meaning in life is an important part of the career-exploration process (Dik et al., 2009). To do this, you need to ask yourself why you work—What does your work view look like? Why is it important? Who do you serve? Then, write up your ideas of a meaningful life – your life view: What do you want your life to look like? How do you want your life to reflect your internal values? Recognize why you are here and how you perceive the world to work. Developing such views with an understanding of your strengths and other attributes can help in this process, as these applications have also been shown to promote purpose and meaning in career contexts (Dik et al., 2014). Who you are, what your purpose is in life, and what your purpose would be in a career-context becomes the foundation which you build your life plans upon.
2. Define: Recognize your gravity problems
Next, recognize the problems that are circumstantial and cannot change. They are, just like gravity, uncontrollable. Some examples of “gravity problems” might include having an advisor that does not respond to his/her emails or having a class you are interested in taking be completely full. It could even refer to a problem that you are not willing to change. Instead of fighting unchangeable circumstances, you need to accept them. From there, it is important to decide what to do about them: Do you need to reframe your thought process and work with the challenges? Or do you need to work around them and do something totally different? Ultimately, you have two choices: work with or work around your gravity problems!
3. Ideate: Brainstorm your Possible Futures and Make Three Odyssey Plans
Now is the time to do some planning. In this step, you are to create three different “parallel universes” for the next 5 years—I know you might suddenly be feeling like Dr. Strange in the Multiverse, but hear me out! This is the time when you can see more lives in you than just one. In your first 5-year life plan, you are to visualize and plan out the life that you are on track to lead. Based on your current goals and plans, write out what your next five years will ideally look like. In your second plan, visualize and write out another path that would be appealing. If your first plans magically disappeared, what would you want to do instead? Let me be clear; it would not be a worse plan, just a different one. Lastly, treat plan three as your wild card plan! Visualize and plan something that is so different from your first two plans, but a path you would also really enjoy. This could be moving to Antarctica and creating habitats for penguins—it’s up to you! Throughout this process, be sure to reflect back on your purpose as indicated in your work and life view ideals.
4. Prototype: Build Some prototypes
Here, you consider what each plan would look like. In other words, create a prototype of your plan and examine how each plan would play out. In doing so, it could be helpful to have a prototype conversation with someone who has lived that plan. As you talk with those individuals and hear their stories, you can further evaluate if the plan you considered fits with your work and life views. It could also be helpful to have prototype experiences. This could mean taking an extra class to learn more about the path you’re considering or it could mean volunteering in a place where you plan to work. Having prototype conversations and experiences can help you see which plans would be meaningful for you and give you purpose.
5. Test: Choose Well
Finally, it is time to make your decision! Of course, you should first make a pro-con list to identify logically which career paths could be filtered out of the decision making process. Pay attention to your gut feelings and rely on what aligns best with your purpose and values. Then, make your decision and move on! Even though there might be other options that are equally beneficial or fitting, research shows that people are happiest when they go all in with their decisions and do not look back (Gilbert & Ebert, 2002).
If you would like to learn more, here below is Bill Burnett’s TEDx talk where he explains the Design Your Life approach to career-decision making:
5 steps to designing the life you want | Bill Burnett | TEDxStanford
Life as a student can be complicated. There are many forces pulling you in different directions – from family members pushing you to “do what you love” to social pressures to make money. However, as you dismiss myths that force you to rapidly make career-related decisions and instead develop your life plan in meaningful steps founded upon your life and career values, such as in the Design Your Life approach, you will be able to intentionally move towards a career that will be both fulfilling and purposeful.
To learn more about your purpose in a wider life sense, feel free to check out the Purpose Module here.
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
References
Abel, J. & Dietz, R. (2012). Agglomeration and job matching among college graduates. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 587. Retrieved from
https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr587.pdf Burnett, B. (2021, February 3). How to use design thinking to create a happier life for yourself. Ideas.Ted.com.
https://ideas.ted.com/how-to-use-design-thinking-to-create-a-happier-life-for-yourself/#:~ :text=Life%20design%20involves%20a%20lot,psychologists%20would%20label%20as %20dysfunctional.
Dik, B.J., Duff, R.D., Allan, B.A., O’Donnell, M.B., Shim, Y., & Steger, M. (2014). Purpose and meaning in career development applications. The Counseling Psychologist, 43:4. https://doi-org.erl.lib.byu.edu/10.1177/0011000014546872
Dik, B. J., Duffy, R. D., Eldridge, B. (2009). Calling and vocation in career counseling: Recommendations for promoting meaningful work. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 40, 625-632. https://doi:10.1037/a0015547
Gilbert, D.T & Ebert, J.E.J. (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affective forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82: 4, 503-514. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.4.503
Stevens, E. (2020, January 30). What is design thinking, and how do we apply it? Inside Design. https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/what-is-design-thinking/