I didn’t think so!

Because mine doesn’t/didn’t either.

I’ve become a stay-at-home wife this year. From a fairly impactful, stressful, feeling-important, mid-level, role at a Fortune 100. Not because I wanted to, but because we moved to a new country, and I’ve been struggling to get a job so far.

This time of struggle and juggle has humbled me and compelled me to take a stark look at the future. In all of my four previous jobs over a decade or so, although I’ve started them off all bubbly, three months into each job, I’ve wrestled with my alarm when it went off in the morning. This was perhaps the best indicator that I was not liking my life as it was — a sign that I had failed to concede to all these years.

I’ve been using this God-given time to drill down on what I really want from a career, in addition to wolfing down chips and guiltily hitting the gym afterward. Before any action, there needs to be adequate but non-exhaustive exploration. I did my research on YouTube and read as much as possible about how to find a meaningful career that’s meaningful to each individual and how to make the switch once you finally arrive. Yes, this meant that I was spending less time networking in my new country and applying for jobs. But this needed to be done so I don’t repeat the last decade of my life all over again. Here are six of the most useful videos that will help you find and make the switch too.

1. Finding work you love at any stage — Liz Brown

Liz talks about looking at aspects of your past jobs that you liked and did not like. She advocates expanding this list to incorporate your hobbies as well and finally getting an idea of a career that includes most of the things you like to do. Her practical examples of lawyers — probably one of the most knowledge-heavy jobs in the world — turning into psychologists and entrepreneurs are encouraging.

2. Don’t follow your passion — Benjamin Todd

This is especially for those who aren’t clear on what their passions are and those who cringe when they hear about this untouchable passion. Counterintuitive to the message of following your passion, Benjamin advises not to do so. He argues that more than passion, what we all want is to have an impact. He urges us to find a cause — a problem that we want to solve in this world — and help come up with a solution. He says, “Find a cause and the passion will come.”

3. Chasing dreams and beginning again — Kate Drummond

Once you’ve realized a few possible paths you want to take, how do you galvanize yourself into action? Kate always knew she wanted to become an actress. But like all of us at some point in our lives, she settled on becoming a teacher — a noble profession no doubt, but one that wasn’t right for her. She talks about the moment that propelled her to make the change and how hard her life became after she decided to act upon that change. Make no flowery assumptions, a career change is excruciating and you may even fail at first, having to pivot your path along the way.

4. Refusing to Settle — Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky

There can never be enough advice when it comes to making the switch. In his animated talk, “Smiley” gives us some solid recommendations on what to do next. Through his journey and his friends’ journeys, he talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with believers, not comparing yourself to others, and making the ask aka hustling.

5. Fueling life from average to epic — Bosco Anthony

Now to bring it all full circle, Bosco talks about connecting purpose with momentum. How do you find your purpose, and once you do, how do you keep working towards that purpose? His five steps to changing life from average to epic include finding your defining moment/s, mapping where you want to end up, making a contract with yourself, recognizing your activation energy, and regular introspection. These will take you from a life of default to a life of design.

6. The Job Hunt is Dead — Sarah Andrus

All this exploration and clarity is great. But no one should leave their day-job abruptly as the monies are more important than the romantic in me would like to believe. Especially if you are responsible for more than yourself. How does one continue to look for a paying job that would help fuel his or her dreams? Sarah gives a new twist to the ways of job hunting. She says most jobs — 85% to be precise — are not posted online at all! This is horrific because most of us spend a lot of time applying for jobs online.

So here’s what I’ve found out so far. A possible career path emerged after creating a list of things I liked to do — psychology. Because I loved listening to my friends and advising them on life’s unending thunders. On the career front, what I enjoyed the most was mentoring my team and solving problems. (Actually, there were a few more competing careers that came up as this business of careers is deeply messy. But I’ll focus on the path that spoke to me the most at this time.) This path also aligned well with my cause of advocating for harmonious lives for all, given the busyness that we all combat with every day. Pursuing a career in psychology is a big investment of time and money and I’m not as brave as Kate. So I want to volunteer in this capacity first before I make the big change of going back to grad school. I will submit an application to volunteer with a crisis center by the end of this month, making the ask. While all this plays out and I design the life I want to live and love, I will follow Sarah’s new job hunting methodology and acquire a job so I can save cash for when I have to go back to school.

Good luck with The Search Y’all! Please share any other videos that may help us find wholesome careers.

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