The egg, the hen, the rooster...or something else entirely?

Visiting my mother on Sunday, I read a "work" related column she shared  by Ellen Harbes, a youth education coordinator.  Ellen's questions stimulate thought about the nature of our professional choices, our predispositions. The questions below open doors to underlying thoughts worthwhile to uncover.  They beg inquiry into the degree of match between professional circumstances and personality/personal traits that sustain us in any particular work setting: (Ellen asks...)

1. "Are you an attorney because you went to law school and passed the Bar Exam or is it because you are a quick thinker, an eloquent speaker and possess amind and heart that yearns for equality?'
2. "Are you an accountant because you are 'good with numbers' or is it because you have an incredible ability to organize and then take that organization to the next level?"
3. "Are you a teacher because you love kids or is it because you are a compassionate person who has patience beyond belief?"  (Ellen Harbes St. Agnes Church Bulletin, January 9, 2011, p. 5)

Perhaps at lunch, or on a break, pop  some of these questions to your co-worker...

Use the question format above to begin your inquiry into the traits required by the work you do ... and your personality or gifts that allow you to do this work well.  

Zooming into the nature of these questions, helps to generate even fuller inquiry:

• To what extent do our personality traits (or emotional makeup) lead us to find "suitable" work?
• To what extent do our physical (gender also) traits lead us to identify work as "suitable," or not?
• To what extent do our cognitive maps (types of thinking) draw us to work that satisfies us?
• To what extent do family and friends lead us to, or deter us from, entering work that seems good for us?  What work is good for us and how do we make this assessment?
• Which forms of work, have circumstances that make it difficult/easy to exit and regroup/retrain?
• How does exposure to a role model expand or limit work inclinations, work choices?
• How can reading/hearing/talking about different kinds of work expand helpful career dreaming?
• How does our cultural group, or societal beliefs, affect work choices we think of as "possible?"
• Is there a right kind of work for us?  Perhaps an entire "field" with common elements?
• How do different workplaces sharpen our talents, crush our gifts, develop supporting talents, make us a better person even at home, or increase our discouragement about ourselves, others, the world?
• Is there any skill set that we can deliver at master level right off the bat?
• Which skill sets take years to develop at the mastery/expert level?
• What do these "long-term" skill sets have in common?
• How do we know that the work we learn to do is "right" for us, or not?
• If we have a gift/talent for doing something, does this mean we must be using it?
• Do we perhaps unconsciously match ourselves up with work that allows us to use our gifts/talents by our willingness to apply for that work position...and not other employment listings?
• To what extent does luck vs choice dtermine our work lives?
• How might we, and our workplaces, benefit more fully from more intentional thinking about our inclinations and choices to engage certain tyes of work over others?
• It's common knowledge that as children we resonate with a work calling sometime between the ages of six and nine.  Did you? Write to us about this incident!