Have you read the Intro to Module 1 yet? If not, go back and do that now! (Remember: when accessing each module’s content, start by clicking on the “Module 1” button directly rather than beginning with “Section 1.1” from the drop-down menu.)

FAILURE #1:

We Internet shop our butts off, when what we really need is a dressing room.

The first failure of traditional career planning methods is that we Internet shop our butts off, when all we really need is a dressing room.

Trying to think and plan and analyze our way into the answers is like Internet shopping for careers, when what we really need is a dang dressing room!

Here’s what I mean.

Awhile back, I saw this super cute purple jacket online. Everything about it seemed perfect. How could it not be made for me? I hit the “order” button immediately. My dream jacket!

A few days later, the jacket arrived. I ripped open the box in anticipation, threw the packaging all over the room, and put it on.

And it looked— well, it looked freaking horrible.

I hated it.

Here’s the thing, guys: no matter how much we browse online or ask questions or read reviews, no amount of analysis, no matter how thorough and no matter how calculated, can ever replace the actual experience— the actual trying on of the clothes.

And so the problem is simple:

We live in a culture that encourages Internet shopping for careers.

Think about it. For the most part, school teaches us to analyze our options but allows for little real life experience prior to making our decisions. We take classes to learn about subject matter and we take aptitude tests to learn about ourselves, and then we’re supposed to match the two in order to determine our career paths.

But is it reasonable to expect people to make the “right” decision, the first time around, based on Internet shopping alone—based almost solely on thinking and analyzing and sitting in a classroom?

This seems to be what society expects, and yet this method is inherently flawed. For most of us, even our best and most informed guess won’t quite lead us where we thought it would. As a result, we end up feeling stuck in a career path that just doesn’t isn’t right for us.

Consider the story of Rachael Kay Albers, one of the inspiring people I’ve interviewed for inclusion in The Sweet Shop (if you have access to the premium version of this course, you can see our full interview right over here).

Awhile back, Rachael wrote a really lovely piece on my blog about finding her authentic path as an arts facilitator with youth in Mexico and Africa– a path that she discovered only after she’d Internet shopped her way into a theater career path as well as law school.

As Rachael explains in her interview, when she first decided to take the path of theater (and then law), she didn’t have an accurate idea of what it’d really be like to work within these professions.

This happened to me, too, when I Internet-shopped my way into my accounting job I held for almost four years. Heck, I think it’s happened to almost all of us at one point or another.

After all, how can we really know what a career will really be like– or how a jacket will really look like– until we actually get the chance to try it out or try it on?

Watch the short clip below from Rachael’s interview, in which she explains her dilemma at the time:

 

 

Guys, this is why trying to “think” our way into the answers and jump straight to the endpoint and needing to know exactly where we’ll end up is a lot like Internet shopping: Because no matter how much we think and search and grasp for the answers, we often cannot really know without experience.

If Internet shopping is the only method we employ, our attempts will often be futile, and we can end up feeling stuck in jobs and careers that fall short of our expectations, leaving us unfulfilled, empty, or even miserable.

In the end, the remedy for this failure is simple: We need more than just Internet shopping– we need a dang dressing room!

But how?

Other than skipping from job to job (like we may have already been doing… ahem), how can we obtain the experience necessary to make more informed decisions? Are there better, easier, less risky ways to try on career-jackets than betting our entire careers and educations on them?

You freaking bet– and of course, that’s exactly what I’ll be covering in the upcoming modules of this course.

Coming up in Module 4, I’ll be showing you several smart ways to avoid or minimize Internet shopping and to test out lots of career jackets that you may not have heard of or considered– methods that, when utilized within the context of the process I’ll be very shortly introducing you to, can be absolutely life and career transforming.

We all know about internships and volunteering and and other avenues for gaining experience and exposure in unexplored fields, but how many other ways do you know of to try on career jackets? And importantly, how many of these methods can be undertaken even if you’re already working at a full time job?

(Hint: There are far more ways to do this than you can probably think or dream of right now.)

I’ll also be including examples from people who’ve used these methods to evolve their way into fulfilling career and life paths of their own.

Almost every single person I’ve talked to who loves their life and their work did not get there by Internet shopping or thinking their way into the “perfect career” and the perfect life.

Nope– instead, almost all of them arrived at their destinations not through a process of pure thinking, but through a process of doing– through a conscious or unconscious process of exploring and experimenting and evolving. (More on this soon– I’ll be giving you an overview of this highly effective method of career navigation, along with scientific research to support it and back it up, before this module comes to an end.)

QUESTION TIME:

[These are questions to consider for discussion within your group meeting, during your “Knowcation Station” drop-in sessions, and/or in the Facebook community]:

We can’t always think our way into the answers. Does this mean we should stop thinking altogether– should we stop asking questions and analyzing our strengths and our interests? Are thinking and planning useless and futile?

Let us know your thoughts (and read what other people have to say) right over here in the private Unlost Facebook community.

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Next: Move onto Section 2: Big Spendin’