Deciding on the path you want to take in life can often feel like an overwhelming task. With so many options and unknowns, it is easy to feel confused about which direction is best for you. This guide aims to provide helpful advice and prompts to assist you in gaining clarity on your interests, values, and skills in order to chart a fulfilling career or lifestyle direction.

Exploring Your Interests

A key component in determining your ideal path is identifying your interests. Your interests are the activities and subjects that spark curiosity, enjoyment, and engagement for you. They are the things that energise you and make you feel alive. Take time to reflect on the types of hobbies, classes, jobs, and projects you have most enjoyed. For example, if you enjoy caring for children, you could consider fostering in Liverpool.

You can also pay attention to the types of books, podcasts, movies, and articles that capture your attention. Your media interests can reveal inner passions you may not have noticed. Make a list of all the interests you can think of, from current hobbies to childhood dreams. Don’t overthink it; just write them all down. Look for any themes or common threads that emerge. From here, do further research on related careers, volunteer opportunities and growth areas to get a better sense of options to explore.

Identifying Your Values

Your values are your core beliefs and priorities that influence your decision-making and provide a moral compass for your life. Reflecting on your values will help reveal the types of work environments and careers that are likely to be most meaningful to you. Important values may include aspects such as helping others, creativity, work-life balance, prestige, financial stability, integrity, learning and knowledge, status, competition, autonomy, working with others, adventure, working for a cause, being challenged, travelling and more.

Assessing Your Skills and Strengths

While interests and values shape what we find internally meaningful in a career, skills and strengths determine what we are likely to excel in and achieve external success with. Make a list of all the skills and strengths you currently possess, as well as any you would like to gain. This will show which types of opportunities are likely to utilise your existing abilities and provide growth in the areas you are seeking to develop. Realistic self-assessment of your skills will help match you to careers in which you can thrive and contribute most effectively.

Exploring Options and Making Decisions

With greater clarity around your interests, values, skills, and strengths, you can now expand your research into potential career and lifestyle options that would allow you to utilise them. Some helpful steps include informational interviews, job shadowing, volunteering, taking classes and getting involved with professional associations in fields of interest. Testing out new directions will help you determine how well they truly suit you.

Determining the best path is a process of self-exploration and investigation. Look inward to understand your interests, values and abilities while looking outward to research options that allow you to apply them. Trust in what energises you at your core and seek opportunities that align with your authentic self.