Figure out what to do with your life in three simple steps

- Hey everyone, Austin from Cultivated Culture here. And in this Nano Tip, I'm going to walk you through the three step framework that you can use to get clarity on what you should do with your life and what career is right for you without having to accept a job and without having to go back to grad school. So step number one here is to get clear on your values and the things that give you energy. So what I want you to do is take out a piece of paper and draw a line right down the middle. On one side, you're going to write energy creators. And on the other side, you're going to write energy drainers. Now I want you to think back to all the tasks, all the projects, all the activities you performed at previous jobs, and I want you to put them into one of those two buckets. By the end of this, you should have a clear picture of the activities that drain your energy and the activities that give you energy. And obviously, we want to focus on the ones that give you energy as we go through this process. Second, I want you to start reaching out to anybody and everybody who has an interesting job. It doesn't necessarily have to be a job that you're sure you love or sure you want to do. Instead, it should just be one that you're curious about. Reach out to them and ask them what they do every day. Ask them about the good stuff, but also ask them to share what they don't love so much about their job or what they wish they could improve, because you want to understand the full picture here. If you love what they do, you can say, "Great, this sounds awesome. Is there anybody else that you think I should talk to in this space who I can get a little bit more knowledge from?" If you don't love what they do, you can say, "Hey, I'm really interested in this aspect of this job, but I'm not so interested in X, Y, and Z aspects. Is there a job title or is there a field that focuses on the area that creates energy instead of drains energy for me? And if so, is there somebody that you think I should talk to?" Either way, you should get a warm introduction to somebody else here and you can continue that chain. Finally in step number three, what I want you to do is dip your toe in the water. So, I love to do this using something that I call 30 day mini pilots. So once you find a field or a job that you're interested in, I want you to take 30 days and give yourself a goal. That goal, it should be actionable, and it should also stretch you a bit. And at the end of 30 days, I want you to do everything that you possibly can to achieve that goal. I want you to take courses, read books, and most importantly, take action in this field. And at the end of the 30 days, if you love what you're doing, double down, learn more. But if you don't, give yourself permission to quit and move on to the next mini pilot. This is how you're going to be able to test these different fields without having to take a job and without having to go back to grad school. And once you do enough of them, you should get very, very clear on what specific role is right for you.