Struggling to identify what you enjoy? Try the Bookshop Challenge
Name: The Bookshop Challenge
Why use it? Have you lost touch with what you enjoy? Do you spend hours at your desk, wondering what else you could do, but struggling to come up with any options?
This is an activity to get you away from your desk, and kick-start your thoughts about the direction you’d like to take your work.
Do: Set aside 30 minutes to an hour to visit your local bookshop (or library), and browse the sections. Enjoy leafing through the different books. Try to visit a broad range of different sections, but allow yourself to linger in those that draw your attention.
Reflect: After your browsing time is up, reflect on which sections drew your attention the most. Where did you spend most of your time? Which books did you find hardest to put down?
Analyse: Consider what it was about those topics that particularly attracted you. This might be straightforward or require a bit more thought. For example, if you lingered in the mountaineering section, is it a love of the outdoors that attracted you? The themes of dedication, of overcoming challenges? Or do you genuinely love mountaineering?
Next, think about how you might apply this to your own situation. Do you want a job that’s outside? Do you feel that you need a greater challenge in your work?
A further step is to consider how you might incorporate more of these interests into your daily life. Changing careers is not necessarily a big, one-time decision but rather a series of small steps that can gradually lead you in a new direction. By putting yourself in new environments, two exciting things happen:
New opportunities tend to arise.
The boundaries of what you think are possible expand.
Taking our example above, this could be heading to a climbing wall (identified interest: climbing), heading down to the city farm (interest: the outdoors) or signing up for a race, an evening class or a new project at work (interest: more challenge). And who knows where each of those might lead…
Exploring these interests is much more enjoyable than endlessly scrolling through job listings! So, which sections will you be browsing?