Soon Recruiting: Your Goals and Dreams

Been thinking about what I'm going to do with the rest of my life lately.  As time draws closer to Jasmin and I going back to the states in August, those questions have been eating at me: "What are you going to do for a job when you get back?"  "Are you going into grad school, if so which one and when?"  "Where are you going to live?"  Of course, the last question depends on the first two.  And the first two depend on WHATEVER I FEEL LIKE. lol  So that's the question: what do I feel like?

My plan upon graduating college has been: 1. go to grad school for a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, 2. graduate 5-7 years later and get a license to practice, 3. open up a private practice, 4. pwn like a boss.  This is how I wanted to use my psychology major, as a way of helping people through their psychological crises using strength-based therapy, an optimistic approach emphasizing one's positive attributes rather than one's debilitations.  I've always enjoyed helping friends with various issues and liked connecting with people (not to mention learning about myself) on a psychological level.  As preparation for this path, I worked during summers with people suffering from mental illness, and while in Japan took both the General GRE and the Psychology Subject Test so that I could send the scores to prospective grad schools.

But when I sat back, outlined my ideas, and thought about it... the clinical psych plan seemed somewhat shallow, especially now that I'm out experiencing life in the "real world."  I know I want to do something in psychology, but is Clinical really the way to go?  Or is working with people with milder psychological disorders in Counseling more interesting?  Or should I look deeper into I/O (Industrial Organizational) psych, since "engage and motivate ordinary people" seems to spark something inside of me lately?  I don't even know if I really want to go to grad school anymore, since I seem to be doing fine learning things on my own and have increasingly negative opinions about schooling.

I took a big leap forward 3 months ago when I realized just how much of an influence reading one book had on me.  That book?  The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore, which I introduced in a recent blog post on schedules.  It put into perspective how I can use what I'm doing now in Japan (utilizing motivation and anti-procrastination methods to learn Japanese and help students learn English) as preparation for a career in psychology.  More than that, it gave me a model to aim for; I can become a counseling psychologist like Neil Fiore.  Instead of committing to a 5-7 year doctorate program because I like clinical psychology and seeing where it takes me, I'm committing to a final goal and taking the necessary steps to reach it whether that requires a doctorate degree, masters degree, or simply more work.  And then I'll see where it takes me. :p

Unfortunately, that realization wasn't enough for me to jump headfirst quite yet.  It wasn't enough to answer with confidence the two questions I first asked at the top, either.  I needed another reason to go in that direction.  So yesterday I was sitting around and decided to do a 10-minute timebox (look for a proper post on timeboxing in the near future lol) on thinking about this problem.  I looked over my outline and picked out things I knew for sure:

• I want to work with a mild-moderate disorder community, not severe.
• I don't want to use medications.
• I want to work 1-on-1.
• I want training on how to work with real people, not get stuck in research.
• I want to do something with the following keywords:
• Time Management
• Goal Achievement
• Scheduling
• Pull Method
• Flow State
• Peak Performance
• Grit

Maybe I've been consuming too much anime and manga lately, but watching these characters work hard to achieve their dreams made me think about my own dreams a bit.  You know, those goals that get me all fired up, the ones I devote myself to and want to see through to the end no matter what (besides you, Jasmin!).  The one I think about the most these days is, well, to become fluent in Japanese.  I wouldn't say I'm quite there yet, but I'm getting closer thanks to using techniques found in many of the above keywords.

In psychology, the phrase "I want to help people" is so overused.  Who do you want to help, what do you want to help them do, and how do you want to help them?  Do I want to use my experience in Japan and help people learn Japanese?  Or do I want to use the techniques I learned to help people learn other languages?  Or could I perhaps want to use these techniques to help people do something entirely different?

So then I took a break, watched some TV, and it hit me.  The idea came so simply, so beautifully.

I want to help other people... achieve their dreams.

This "epiphany" is surely something I've thought about before, but this time it's a solid final goal.  My dream is to give other people the ability to realize theirs.  It wasn't long before I concluded that the place people are most likely to be achieving their dreams is at work.  Don't give me that look! >:O  In theory, people are getting into their respective lines of work because they enjoy it, and they have goals within that work.  What general obstacles would they have that I could assist on?  Well, procrastination, trouble balancing life and work, lack of motivation, inability to come up with goals or plan ahead, exhaustion from over-work, etc.  Gets me excited just thinking about it!

And with that, we've come full circle back to The Now Habit, which I can look at in a new perspective.  I'm actually currently re-reading the book in Japanese.  My next step is to send a message to the author, Neil Fiore.  I want to ask him stuff like, what kind of counseling he does and how it differs from I/O psych; what his inspiration was in terms of other books, research, etc.; what sort of part-time job or schooling I can use to prepare myself to do his kind of work.  I also want to use this blog as a way to play with some ideas that relate to the psychology I want to do.  Wish me luck!

If you have any questions or comments about the methods I present I'd love to hear them!