Many young people find it hard to decide on a vocation. This is not a strange thing, for in the words of Gowin and Wheatly (Occupations), "there is no short cut either in the choice of an occupation or in the preparation for it."
For thousands of years, people have tried to discover how to choose an occupation by the shape of the head or the characteristics of the face, but they have never been able to prove their methods useful.
In contrast with such methods, it is important to remember that the choice of your occupation is an educational proposition. You cannot choose a calling in one day's time or in one year's time. Your decision must be based on a period of long study both of yourself and of the needs of your fellowmen.
The first step is self-analysis. What are your personal qualities? Your analysis may be formed on such qualities as health, intelligence, character traits, interest, ambition, eagerness to achieve, leadership and special abilities.
A prospective teacher, writer, lawyer, for example, must have a good command of language; an engineer must be good in mathematics; a doctor must be inclined towards the natural sciences.
Another factor to consider in choosing a career is the economic ones. Is there an oversupply in the proposed profession? Can one make a comfortable income with it? Or will one be content with its monetary rewardshut with the satisfaction of doing teh best he can in teh field in which he is very much interested? Some people enjoy serving others; some work for the sake of work.
The successful professional is not the one who reaps greatest monetary rewards but he/she gets greatest satisfaction from his/her work. There are rewards that are not measured in terms of money. The independence of the farmer, in a way, is its own reward; the power that a public man wields; the inspiration that a professor gives to his students; the researches that a scientist conducts; the health that a doctor gives to the people in his community; all these are rewards in themselves.
For thousands of years, people have tried to discover how to choose an occupation by the shape of the head or the characteristics of the face, but they have never been able to prove their methods useful.
In contrast with such methods, it is important to remember that the choice of your occupation is an educational proposition. You cannot choose a calling in one day's time or in one year's time. Your decision must be based on a period of long study both of yourself and of the needs of your fellowmen.
The first step is self-analysis. What are your personal qualities? Your analysis may be formed on such qualities as health, intelligence, character traits, interest, ambition, eagerness to achieve, leadership and special abilities.
A prospective teacher, writer, lawyer, for example, must have a good command of language; an engineer must be good in mathematics; a doctor must be inclined towards the natural sciences.
Another factor to consider in choosing a career is the economic ones. Is there an oversupply in the proposed profession? Can one make a comfortable income with it? Or will one be content with its monetary rewardshut with the satisfaction of doing teh best he can in teh field in which he is very much interested? Some people enjoy serving others; some work for the sake of work.
The successful professional is not the one who reaps greatest monetary rewards but he/she gets greatest satisfaction from his/her work. There are rewards that are not measured in terms of money. The independence of the farmer, in a way, is its own reward; the power that a public man wields; the inspiration that a professor gives to his students; the researches that a scientist conducts; the health that a doctor gives to the people in his community; all these are rewards in themselves.
BE THE BEST OF WHATEVER YOU ARE
If you can't be a pine on top of the hill
Be a shrub in the valley - but be
The best little shrub in the side of the rill
Be a bush if you can't be a tree
We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew;
There's something for all of us here.
There's big work to do and there's lesser to do
And the task we must do is near
If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail;
If you can't be the sun, be the star;
It isn't in the size the you win or you fail -
Be the best of whatever you are.
-Douglas Malloch-
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