So what do you do? It’s a question we all have been asked a million times it seems. Whether we are currently employed, but looking to switch careers, or are searching for a new position, it feels a little like a loaded question. Why?

Because the answer is so much more than just what you do for a living.

The key to proper visualization is to tackle each step in the process, to look at your fears, uncertainties and even the barriers to your outcomes and become comfortable with them, almost as if it were a rehearsal.

“What holds us back from answering is often a disconnection from our narratives—the story that tells the listener where you’re from, who you are, and where you’re going. Your narrative is not just a powerful source of connection for strangers over drinks, it’s also an effective tool for personal growth,” says author Sarah Kathleen Peck in her article Answering the Dreaded “So, What Do You Do?” Question.

Peck suggests using this question as a jumping off point to develop your personal narrative and visualize your future.

“… when we use visualization as a tool to deal with uncertainty by crafting future vision stories, we can improve our day-to-day performance, become more comfortable taking action and making changes, and prime ourselves to see opportunities that we might not have seen before.”

The Benefit of visualization

Visualization allows you to create a safe space to think about and understand possibilities and our potential. We can map out a plan where we would like to go and use that as motivation.

This is different than fantasizing or just getting lost in positive thinking. Usually when you are fantasizing about your dreams, you see only the end results: the big house, the big corner office, the big car, the big client and so on. While all that is great, it can set you up for disappointment, because those things aren’t all immediately attainable or even realistic. In fact, fantasizing can have disastrous results. How Our Brains Stop Us From Achieving Our Goals (and How to Fight Back) detailed a study of graduates who were trying to find a fulfilling job. Those who spent the most time fantasizing about their career end results had applied for fewer jobs, had been offered fewer jobs and if they were able to find work, had lower salaries.

This article quoted Jeremy Dean, a psychological researcher at UCL London and the owner of PsyBlog, as saying, “The problem with positive fantasies is that they allow us to anticipate success in the here and now. However, they don’t alert us to the problems we are likely to face along the way and can leave us with less motivation—after all, it feels like we’ve already reached our goal.” Continue reading →