HOW TO IDENTIFY THE CAREER YOU WANT IN FIVE EASY STEPS

By Dr. Daphne Mobley

Some people may identify their careers when they are very young. At eight years of age, they may decide that they want to have occupations just like their parents or they may decide to enter different professions. Others may discover their career ambitions while they are attending high school or at some point later in their lives. Even though people may select careers to work in, it is important to realize that they can change to other professions at any time. Although many individuals may feel as though they are locked into their careers for financial or other reasons, they should take a moment to assess their situations and determine if other career opportunities are more ideal for them. When they look through their lenses, they may discover the freedom to select new, more appealing careers - careers that may even be dramatically different from their initial choices.

My own career changed in a remarkable fashion. Even though I knew that I wanted to be a veterinarian since I was thirteen years old, I decided to transition to a career that assists people instead of animals. After sixteen years of practicing veterinary medicine, I made the radical decision to lay my stethoscope down and accept a unique opportunity working for the Chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500 company.  I became a senior executive for that organization and had many job responsibilities. Despite the numerous day-to-day job duties that I had, I found time to coach many of the company’s employees and other people employed at various institutions. During this period I discovered that I loved supporting people during their pursuit of career success. My passion to help others led me to establish my own business and motivate others to experience the bliss of pursuing their own career dreams.

You can also determine the career that is ideal for you. Take some time to consider your responses to these questions.

• What would you enjoy doing even if you did not get paid to do it?

• What occupation could you do every single day and not grow tired of doing it?

• When you picture yourself in that profession, does a huge grin suddenly appear on your face?

After you spend sufficient time reflecting on the questions above, proceed to the five steps below. These steps will help you identify your ideal career.

1. List the careers that appeal to you. If you can not think of any, write down what you really enjoy doing and list the careers that are associated with these activities.

2. Obtain substantial information about each of the careers on your list so that you have a reasonable understanding of what the career entails. You can obtain data on the careers by searching on line or reading books that describe the careers you selected.

3. After conducting your research, return to your list and eliminate the careers that you are no longer interested in based on the information you gathered. Now you can focus on the careers that you are still interested in.

4. Take your abbreviated list and speak to people employed in those professions. During your conversations with them you can ask additional questions that were not answered when you conducted your research. These discussions will provide great opportunities to get their personal perspectives on the careers. You can speak to these individuals on the telephone, however meeting with them face-to-face allows for a more personal exchange (having coffee or tea together is a great way to have a nice discussion). When you schedule your meetings, be careful not to develop intimidating thoughts about speaking with them. Just remember, they began their careers using the same process and will be extremely flattered that you want to discuss what they know best - their very own professions!

5. Continue to re-evaluate and refine your list until you gather sufficient data to determine which career is right for you.

The more you learn about your career of interest, the more you increase the probability of knowing whether you truly want to pursue it. As a result, you will significantly decrease the time or money that may be wasted training in a discipline that you do not want to have as your career.

Click here to download the pdf.

OVERCOMING THE ODDS: A BRONX WOMAN’S INCREDIBLE STORY OF SUCCESS PART 2

By Dr. Daphne Mobley

I was able to leap over some pretty high hurdles that appeared in front of me during my life. I would not have been able to soar over these obstacles if I did not have the support of my wonderful family - my father, mother and brother. They not only supported me, but more importantly they believed in my ability to reach my seemingly unattainable goal to become a veterinarian. My father was the quiet gentleman that laughed in the background in our house and always held a newspaper in his hand while he watched golf, basketball or some other sport on television. Dottie, my mother, took me and Celia Martinez to many activities in New York City, including roller derby training in Staten Island. We traveled four hours roundtrip from the Bronx on the subway and ferry every weekend for several months. The long trip was definitely worth it because Celia and I enriched our friendship and laughed heartily when we repeatedly fell on the steeply banked roller derby track. My younger brother had a bedroom that continuously overflowed with pets. He had a piranha that would cause his friends to erupt into raucous laughter each time they fed it fish and he also had gerbils that constantly propagated pink babies that were buried under the wood chips in a small glass cage. You would think that my brother was the one destined to become a veterinarian instead of me!

But if it was not for Aunt Loretta, I never would have begun my journey to become a veterinarian. She uncovered my deeply buried desire to become a veterinarian, a desire that was covered by many layers of fear - a fear of animals. My family frequently visited my Aunt Loretta and after some time she sternly informed me that she would no longer put Taddy and Dinky in the basement while I was there. Aunt Loretta insisted that I become more familiar with her two dogs that would be allowed to freely roam the house during my future visits.  I absolutely cherished going to her house, so in a very brief time I became accustomed to having Taddy and Dinky circle around me to smell the curious scents that accompanied me into the house. A sudden turn of events occurred for me. The more that I was around the dogs, the more my fascination with all animals grew. The fear that had me running from animals transformed into an obsession that had me running to read all the animal related books that I could find.

By the time I was thirteen years old I was absolutely certain that I wanted to become a veterinarian. I began to plan how I could begin my quest to achieve this goal. My plans included attending a premier academic high school and college. After being admitted to several high schools, I decided to attend one of the top ranked high schools in New York City, the Bronx High School of Science.

Now that may sound great, getting accepted into one of the top schools in New York City, but having a love of science and achieving academic success were not particularly enviable where I grew up. However, I refused to allow my environment to influence what I wanted to achieve and I maintained a steady focus on my goal at all times. In life you have choices to make. You are the major contributor to the outcomes of events in your life. It is up to you to decide how you respond to issues that face you and you must determine how you will allow these circumstances to affect you.

My environment did not quench my zeal to learn (because I chose not to allow it to) and I performed well scholastically in high school. I ultimately wanted to attend Cornell University because they had a veterinary school and I just could not envision myself anywhere else. Occasionally there will be people on the sidelines that will attempt to get you to change your vision for your career. They will scream from bull horns to get you to accept their philosophy on the best profession for you and they will tell you that you can not accomplish your own career goal. A prime example of this happened each time I informed others that I wanted to be a veterinarian and they promptly replied, “You know it’s hard to get into veterinary school.” Maybe they did this because they could not achieve this feat and they did not want to celebrate someone else that had the guts to go for her dream. I did not allow others to change my vision and you should not either!

During my high school years my belief and focus mixed with a strong dose of desire were the perfect blend that propelled me closer to my goal of getting admitted to veterinary school.  In my senior year I was admitted to a mighty bastion of Ivy League excellence, Cornell University, despite hearing about the difficulties of gaining admission to this institution.  However, no one told me about the enormous odds that I needed to overcome in order to graduate from Cornell University - the intense competition to excel academically, the stark reality that my graduating class was less than 5% African American and the pressure to be the first person in my family to graduate from an Ivy League university. Even though I was confronted with all of these issues, I graduated in three and a half years from this university that people had difficulty graduating from in even four years.

There are several points that I would like you to take away from this portion of my story. I truly believe that anyone can achieve their dreams if they adhere to these five essential practices.

• Believe that you can attain your goals.
• Surround yourself with positive supporters and refuse to listen to the naysayers.
• Make sacrifices even at times when you may not want to.
• Always remain focused on your goals.
• Envision and actually feel how it will be when you reach your goal.

You are the one in control of your destiny, no one else is. It is now time for you to move forward toward your self defined destiny!

Download the pdf file here: ezinemystorypart2a

OVERCOMING THE ODDS: A BRONX WOMAN’S INCREDIBLE STORY OF SUCCESS PART 1

By Dr. Daphne Mobley

What comes to your mind when you hear the words, “The Bronx”? Does this New York City borough evoke images of violent crimes and crumbling homes where impoverished people reside? Well there are other Bronx images, many that are positive and rarely portrayed as being representative of the Bronx. Some notable examples are the Bronx Zoo, City Island or even the New York Botanical Garden with its unmatched, exclusive collection of exotic flowers from all over the world.

There is yet another positive Bronx image - one that is of a Bronx native who achieved accomplishments that many said were impossible to attain. This African American woman was raised in the Bronx and rose to speak in the Board room of a Fortune 500 company. The African American woman that I am referring to is me. The experiences that I had were ones that many dream of. I still find myself reviewing events in my life with utter amazement and wondering how they all happened to me.

My experiences did not occur because I possess some athletic, superwoman prowess or a melodic voice that may be commonly associated with successful inner city natives. They occurred because of decisions I made when I decided not to hang out in the streets until the wee hours of the morning and my neighbor Bobby did. Now Bobby is in jail serving a life sentence for a foiled robbery attempt that resulted in the murder of a cab driver. These experiences occurred because I did not experiment with crack cocaine and my classmate Tito did. The last time that I saw Tito was on a New York City bus when he was walking up and down the aisle speaking aloud about something that only he understood. These experiences occurred because I chose to abstain from having sex in junior high school and Gigi didn’t.  She became strapped with adult responsibilities and was stripped of her freedom to enjoy her teenage years.

You see, I do not want to be the only exception of what the general population may believe about Bronx natives, or women, or people of color or African Americans. I want a continuum of others to join me so that we all have success stories that will be used to inspire others. Telling these stories will become the norm and replace the sorrowful, depressing tales we are inundated with on the news today. Telling these stories will change the views that people have about Bronx natives. Telling these stories will have a favorable impact on Bronx residents so that they will believe that they can also accomplish phenomenal achievements. This was not the case for a young graduate at a graduation ceremony that I had the privilege to speak at. The elementary school was located approximately ten blocks away from the street that I lived on when I was her age. During the ceremony I informed the students that I grew up in that very same neighborhood and told them about my successful experiences. At the end of my speech the young girl said, “She doesn’t look like she is from here.” Why did she make that statement - was it the business suit that I wore that confused her? I am not certain, but I hope that I planted a seed of belief in each graduate, parent and others in attendance at the graduation. When the seed blossoms to become a flower within them, I want them to believe that they can be anything they want to be and achieve anything in the world that they want to. It is my sincere hope that they will tell stories of success that will become the norm for the Bronx and replace the negative images that do not truly represent the vivacious, victorious spirit of Bronx natives.

Download the pdf file here: ezinemystorypart1

ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT CAREER PATH?

FIND OUT BY ANSWERING 4 SIMPLE QUESTIONS

By Dr. Daphne Mobley

In the United States, people work approximately half of their waking lives. This statistic is even more amazing when you consider that some individuals spend their entire work day performing jobs that do not provide any gratification for them at all. On Sunday evenings, they become irritated by the mere thought that they will return to work the following day. Why should people spend half of their valuable lives doing something that is unfulfilling? Life can be too short and people are entitled to perform work assignments that give them total bliss, or at least a reasonable amount of satisfaction. It is critically important to pursue the career that you truly desire because this can ultimately result in greater happiness and good health.

Do you fit into this category of dissatisfied employees? The following four questions can help you identify the answer to this question.

• Are you going to work every day because you like your salary or the money that you earn pays your bills?
• Did you begin your career because your parents or someone else wanted you to pursue it?
• Has your work environment become so comfortable that you shy away from leaving your safe comfort zone?
• Do you lack excitement when you talk about what you do for a living?

If your answer to these questions is no - congratulations!  You are one of the fortunate people with a career that satisfies your soul. However, if your answer to the questions is yes, you have a life changing decision to make. You can remain unhappy and maintain the status quo or you can develop plans to begin a fulfilling career. Although it may be quite unsettling to change from a job routine that you know well, you can now begin your journey to a rewarding career by identifying what you truly desire to do.

I know how frightening a career change can be. My life was dramatically changed when I resigned from my job as a corporate executive, established my own company and became a motivational speaker as well as a consultant. A myriad of feelings flooded my body and permeated every single bit of my being. My feelings ranged from guilt for leaving a Fortune 500 company that provided absolutely wonderful opportunities for me to fear of assuming an entrepreneurial role all by myself. It was very difficult for me to sever my ties with a company that was such a large part of my life for over 16 years and pursue my own career passion. However, the immeasurable exhilaration overshadowed the guilt and fear when I simply imagined achieving my career goal of motivating others to pursue their own career dreams.

When you make the decision to embark upon your new career, you will no longer simply imagine true bliss, but you will actually feel it when you are completing work assignments that you truly enjoy. Then you will not mind when Sunday evening rolls around - you will look forward to every single Monday!

Download the pdf file rightcareerpath.