When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home.
 ~Betty Bender

Just this week, a colleague of mine shared the following word association exercise with me.  When I saw my results below, I thought this might be something to share with others who are looking for WORK.  Or should I say a CAREER?

Here is the exercise:
Career or Work?

Write what words come to mind when you think of Career.
Write what words come to mind when you think of Work.

Here are my lists:

Career
focus, enlightenment, in-line, outcome, energy, and fulfillment

Work
hard, grind, sweat, blood, tears, futile, incomplete, never ending, tiresome

Judging by my word associations, it’s not hard to tell which one I would find more appealing.  Upon closer reflection I discovered the following:

Dictionary.com says this about Career 
reference
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/career

~noun
1.  An occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one's lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer.
2.  A person's progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking: His career as a soldier ended with the armistice.

Dictionary.com says this about Work 
reference
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/work

~noun
1.  Exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil.
2.  Something on which exertion or labor is expended; a task or undertaking: The students finished their work in class.
3.  Productive or operative activity. 

I think you’ll agree that the above definitions of these words show that they are not the same in meaning which reflects the difference in my word associations with each of them.  Work is something that is usually required of us throughout our Careers, no matter what that Career choice is.  Even the most highly esteemed Career paths require an amount of work to be accomplished.  None of us are exempted from WORK.

However, some of us are better suited to various types of work. The trick is to know what type of work would make us feel happy and fulfilled.  There are various self assessment tests that can help us discover what makes us tick in the world of work.

Check out the following links for information on choosing a career path:
Self Assessment
What do I want to do?
These two pages hold a collection of selected links to help you discern what type of work you excel at and what types of Career paths require work skills that you naturally possess and enjoy.  When we find the work that fits our natural talents and skills-set it feels less like WORK!  More like Career!

If you still find that you don’t have a clear Career path, you may want to consider seeing a Career or Employment Specialist.  To find agencies that offer this type of service, please see the Services area of the Links2Work website and select types of services from the left side links.  Then choose by Agency name from the selected resource page.

Remember to have fun while discovering your skills and talents!  This shouldn’t be work!

Be Well
~The Advisor

 

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