(Continued from previous post.)

There are many factors that determine work satisfaction. Overriding all of them is the path you choose to follow, whether it’s the “traditional” career path (which, as described in previous posts, other experts consider to be obsolete), or one of the life style paths I’ve mentioned: a Professional’s Path or a Service Path. (If you’re clinging to the obsolete notion of career, I suggest that you read this series from the start in case you’ve just dropped in to this post.)

Getting clear about this overriding choice of path and how it fits into your life will pay off for you whether you’re doing goal setting for your life and/or career, considering a career change, or perhaps working on a personal mission statement.

So before you start your job skills list, or take that “perfect job quiz,” or peruse the “top jobs in the usa,” my advice is this: get clear about your path.

If you remember from previous postings, I describe the two life style paths as follows:

• Professional’s Path: A self-directed style in which a person is driven by a quest for growth, autonomy, and passionate expression of their creativity.

• Service Path: A community-directed style in which a person is driven by a quest to bring value to others in the communities in which they live (which could include their local community, state, nation, or even the world).

In this posting I’m going to provide some details about the Professional’s Path and the Service Path. Specifically, the kinds of skills you will want to develop for each path.

The Professional’s Path

On the Professional’s Path you will want to develop your skills in the following areas:

• Continuously growing your level of competence as it goes through stages from novice to master.

• Identifying projects that capture your interest and, indeed, excite you.

• Making effective, powerful offers that “sell your work and the value you create” (see more about powerful offers by clicking here). This will ensure that you have an income stream.

• Cultivating your public identity in your profession that emphasizes your passions, skills, and trustworthiness (click here to read more about trust).

• Being able to emotionally and financially withstand the disappointment of not being chosen for a new project.

• Having the competence to effectively decline requests that you either don’t have the capacity or desire to perform, or that you assess are simply distractions.

• Finding and creating meaning in your work so that when you look back it is without regret.

The Service Path

On the Service Path you will want to develop the skills listed above for the Professional’s Path as well as the following:

• Thriving through bringing value to others in the communities that you live in.

• Immersing yourself in community life.

• Being attuned to conflicts in the community and helping to resolve them.

• Committing yourself to the long-term well being of the community.

Can you feel the breeze?

Previously I talked about a “calling” as being like a gentle breeze. Can you “feel a breeze” one way or another about following the Professional’s Path or the Service Path? Is there one that grabs your interest and, more importantly, your heart? If so, that’s great. If not, be still and listen to what your intuition is telling you. If you’re drawn to both, that’s OK too. There are ways to integrate both paths into your life.

Now that you’re starting to think and get clear about your path, we can look at the tools (such as monster.com and careerbuilders.com) that are available and can help you on your path.

So next time we’ll start taking a closer look at these tools and how to leverage them.

 © 2006 Gold Nugget Coaching

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