Recently I blogged about how overwhelming it can be to choose a career path when you have loads of interests.
(That post is here, if you’d like to check it out.)
It’s like author Keith Ferrazzi was reading my mind, or reading my blog, because just a few days later his e-mail newsletter was headlined “Target Your Dream Job in an Hour.”
Rather than seeing too many possibilities as paralyzing, Ferrazzi suggests putting them to work — making a list of every job you’ve ever dreamed of having, along with everything you’re good at, everything you’re not good at, the things that make you happy and the companies you’d like to work for.
In his post, Ferrazzi writes:

The idea here is to brainstorm – don’t limit yourself by what you feel is “possible.”  You will start to see patterns among the jobs you list here. Similar traits between them.  That’s the real value, so the more inputs you have here the better.

So you make the lists, then you look for themes. Hmmm, there are a lot of mentions of teaching, or look at how many times I mention being active or making art.
What I like about this is how liberating it sounds to consider everything within bounds. Don’t worry about how much school it would take or that you’re already in your 50s and have decades of experience doing something else. Just open yourself up to the possibilities.
There’s plenty of time to get practical after you’ve made your lists.
Have you used list making to find your dream job? Did you do Keith Ferrazzi’s lists or something else? Did it work?