Who do you want to be when you grow up?

“I’m gonna be a trash-man or a ninja when I grow up,” said my 6 year old self to my parents.  Throughout my childhood, like many others, I was confronted with the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  As the seasons changed so did my answers.  It seemed the more I learned and experienced, the more volatile my response to the question would become.  Policeman, scientist, baseball player, entrepreneur and so on.  Is this normal?  How could I be so erratic?  

Perhaps it wasn’t my answer, but the question that needed addressing.  Let’s re-frame the question and see what happens.  Larry, who do you want to be when you grow up?  “I want to be the leader of a team that helps people and solves problems that nobody has figured out how to solve yet”.  Now we’re getting somewhere!  In order to identify who we want to be, we need to create a deep awareness of what brings us happiness and energy.  We can then use this knowledge of ourselves as a compass to navigate communities, industries, organizations and the roles within them that allow us to spend the majority of our time doing what we love.  Although likely less volatile, the answer to this question will evolve over time and it’s good practice to go through the exercise every few years.  

Tip:  The 5 whys exercise is helpful here.  Once you have your first pass, ask yourself why that is who you want to be.  Then ask why again.  Complete that 5 times and you will dive deeper into what truly brings you happiness and energy.