The Self Reflection Formula: The Answer to Career Uncertainty in Your 20s
By Harry Keenan
By the end of this article, you will have a step-by-step guide on how to effectively self-reflect and, therefore, have a method to use that can help both you and I find work we enjoy.
Attend any good university in this country, and the careers fairs, lectures, and emails will all involve multiple strategies and formulas for how to approach our careers: How do we formulate the ultimate CV? How do we structure the perfect cover letter? How do we stand out amongst our peers?
However, these strategies bypass a much bigger question for which a formula escapes us: What is it we want to do with our life? What industry appeals? What is important to us? And what type of job shall we apply for?
We have no idea how to go about this. Finding the answers feels so abstract. James Clear said, “Often we don’t lack motivation, we lack clarity.” I’m sure we all want answers, we just don’t know how to go about it.
Based on this, I’ve tried my best to create a formula for this process. This is very much a note to self as well as a helpful guide. I didn’t know whether to put ‘we’ or ‘you’ for this, so I’ve used them interchangeably. The first step is the foundational mindset that proceeds all the other weekly actions.
The Starting Mindset 5 Key Principles
You must not see work as a means to an end, but as an end in and of itself. It’s what we will spend much of our life doing, so we must try to find a way to enjoy it.
Therefore, you must believe it’s possible to enjoy your work. I think there’s maybe two issues here: either we don’t know how to work out what enjoyable work is, or we haven’t even considered it to be a possibility in the first place.
You must take finding that type of work very seriously. We must work and try to reflect and seek topics and avenues that light us up, like our life depends on it—because it does.
You must prioritise it. We must devote time every week to working on finding it out.
Patience: We may not find out this path for 5–10 years, or we may find it in 2 weeks, so we need to be patient.
David Ogilvy, who founded one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world (Ogilvy) in 1948, is a perfect example. It still exists now. When he was 38, before founding Ogilvy, he sold stoves, worked as a diplomat, worked in restaurants, and on farms before finding advertising. However, he never stopped looking for his thing.
The Practical Steps: What Are the Weekly Actions?
Step 1: Take Note of Your Interactions with the World: You want to almost zoom out from yourself and have a figurative version of yourself scoring and taking note of interactions you have with the world. If you find yourself lost in some conversation with a friend, deeply engrossed in a lecture in an abnormal way, reading something that sparks your curiosity, watching a documentary about something, or excelling at a particular activity—this could be a presentation, a topic you’ve discussed at uni—take note.
Do you find yourself easily doing certain things that others find hard? Is there a specific task or activity you’ve been particularly consistent with? Ask yourself this all the time: Shit, why did I like that? Am I good at this?
Once you do this, you may start to see some trends and topics that keep reappearing. Once that happens, you could buy some books, watch more videos, and go further down those rabbit holes.
Step 2: Formalise Our Own Self-Reflection and Learning: If these moments don’t come, we need to create them. This comes from scheduling reflection time, curiosity-driven hours, and moments within the week. For example, Saturday 9 AM–11 AM: We will read books, watch videos, journal, or research jobs within a field.
4 Key Activities We Can Do in This Period:
Read – You can order 5 different books, articles, etc., read some of them, find out what’s interesting and what’s not, and move on if you don’t like one.
Listen to Podcasts – You can listen to podcasts on many different areas and see if anything sparks curiosity.
Journal and Write – You can journal about your strengths and what you enjoy, then pick them apart to gain deeper insight.
Seek Feedback – You can try and speak to people about what they see in you. You can ask parents and friends, "What do you think I’m naturally good at?"
Bringing It All Together: So basically, we want a combination of weekly external actions as well as enough internal reflection. If we put effort into this on a weekly basis, combined with the correct mindset, hopefully, we can make our best guess on what type of first job we may enjoy, emphasis on the guess part, because it is almost impossible to fully know before we start working, but I personally do not think that is an excuse or reason not to do some self-reflection that can inform a best first choice. Hopefully, if we do this, we can land on some industries that pertain to our strengths, curiosities, and desires—not the world’s.
Small Recap: So, it’s a combo of the correct mindset, taking note of our interactions with the world, and prioritising time for self-reflection. Sprinkle in some patience, discipline, and consistency, and hopefully, some patterns may start to emerge.
Have a great week!
Harry
If you’d like to read more, Harry writes articles about the science of human behaviour, the psychology of business, life in your 20s and more. @Harry.kbusiness on Instagram and Harry Keenan on LinkedIn.