What if you could find the role that was perfect for you – the role that makes you feel energized, excited, engaged, and grateful that this is what you get to do for a living? If getting this role would cost you the investment of a bit of time, would you invest the time? If you’re like me, the answer is of course! Figuring out what role suits us well is in our reach using Ken Coleman’s approach to finding our sweet spot.

There are 4 steps to Ken Coleman’s approach.

Step 1. List your strengths and talents

Your strengths and talents include what you are naturally gifted at as well as skills you’ve acquired and practiced over time. To help you brainstorm your list, ask yourself these questions:

  • What do people tell you that you are good at?
  • What comes easy to you that seems difficult to others?
  • What have you put effort into getting better at?

For example, when I was in grade school, I was good at math, and I enjoyed it. That was a natural gift. When I decided to become a better listener after reading about the habit “Seek First To Understand Then To Be Understood” in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I put effort into being a better listener. Now people regularly tell me that I’m a good listener. That is a skill that I’ve developed, not a natural gift.

Step 2. List your passions

We want to find the activities that energize us. When you are “in the zone” or when you get so absorbed in something you lose track of time, what are you doing? It’s these types of activities that we want to identify. Sometimes we even have more energy when we complete these activities than before we started. In other words, what do you really like doing?

Step 3. Find your why

This is where we find meaning in our work. It’s what makes our work fulfilling. I really like the questions Ken Coleman uses when he coaches people through this exercise:

Who do I most want to help?

What problem do I want to solve?

What solution do I want to provide?

Ken Coleman, “Stage 1 of Realizing Your Dream: Discovery”

The challenging part about these questions is being honest with ourselves. Our previous job titles, our education, even what other people think we should be doing, can cloud our honesty with ourselves. You’ll do yourself a huge favor if you forget about all that and listen to your heart instead.

When I answer these questions the people I want to help are engineers. I come from an engineering background and I like to say that I speak engineer. But then the doubts…should I be helping the poor, the sick, the old, the young? Here’s where courage is needed. I know that when I’m coaching engineers I’m in my sweet spot. It’s energizing and I feel on purpose. I also know that if I help engineers to grow and share their value, they will in turn be able to impact all of those populations through advances in technology and engineering in all fields. It takes courage to listen to your heart, but it’s definitely worth it if you want to find your sweet spot.

Step 4a. Brainstorm roles

When you look at the output of steps 1-3, what roles benefit from a combination of the talents, skills, and passions you identified? If you are having difficulty with brainstorming roles, ask for help from a friend. They may be able to think of roles you don’t because they have different experiences and backgrounds.

Brainstorming roles actually comes after writing a purpose statement as part of research in Ken Coleman’s list, but I find it helpful to think about roles before writing the purpose statement.

Step 4b. Write a purpose statement

We’ll put all of this together by using Ken Coleman’s purpose statement template:

I will use my top talents of x and y to do z, the work I love to do.

Ken Coleman, “Discover Who You Are (And What Your Dream Job Is)”

Using this template, my purpose statement today is: I will use my top talents of engineering, listening, and discernment to coach engineers to find, grow and share their value, the work I love to do.

If you are having difficulty filling in the blanks, don’t worry. This takes time! You will likely go through several iterations. And, over time, your purpose statement is likely going to change. Get something down and see how it feels. You can always change or refine it later.

tl;dr

According to Ken Coleman, we are in our sweet spot when we are doing what we love to do, and doing what we do best. The steps to finding our sweet spot are to list our strengths and talents, list our passions, find our why (what’s meaningful to us), and brainstorming roles in order to create a purpose statement.

engineer your life

  • Set aside time to go through this exercise. Schedule a time on your calendar (what gets scheduled gets done).
  • What small next step can you take towards the work you would love to do? Identify a step and then take it!
  • Check out the Ken Coleman Show podcast where he talks people through finding their sweet spot.

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash