Dr. Grace Lee is the perfect example of how to align your career with who you are, both in her personal choice, and using her experience in neuroscience to assist others in finding purposeful, fulfilling careers. She calls her technique “brain-based coaching” and has created a new movement, Career Revisionist, for empowered people who are resolved to be inspired by what they do. At the core is her vocational education process, which starts with helping people understand why they do the things they do, so they can change what and how they do things to better align with who they are.
Grace’s own life was upended when her mother was killed in a head-on car crash. Grace herself miraculously escaped being a quadriplegic thanks to extensive rehabilitation. But only two years later, at 10-years-old, her father (now remarried with two young children) told her that she had to find new living arrangements. So, she found herself abandoned, living on her own and working at a restaurant, when at the age of 14, a couple, who were eating at the restaurant, offered her a place to stay, and ultimately adopted her. At 16, Grace gave herself permission to have a better life and pursued the only route she knew at the time to achieve that: go to school, get good grades, and get a good job. Eventually she did all of that pursuing a successful career in neuroscience and publishing her research in several scientific journals. But it did not align with who she is. And once again, she was on her own to create her own career and establish a model for being a Career Revisionist.
Steps to Developing Vocational Confidence
Grace says that clients will often come to her and exclaim that they can’t find their passion. She advises them that looking for your passion isn’t necessarily the first step. While you need feel moved by what you’re doing, it’s important to step back and develop clarity on who you are as an individual and what is true for you in your life. The first step is to identify your highest values. Grace says that no matter what your background, educational or economic status, humans will always act one hundred percent of the time in accordance with their highest values. But that is only one of the four components to developing vocational confidence.
Grace describes four elements that she says are equally important, like a VENN model, each element circle overlapping the others. Your career will naturally be fulfilling and successful when you apply them to your career choice:
- Your highest values
- What you’re skilled at
- Your ability to create wealth around it
- How it makes a meaningful contribution to the world
She sums it up by saying, “Your career is not just affording the lifestyle that you want outside of work. Your career is the greatest form of expression of who you are and the impact you want to have in this world.”
From Just Coasting to Work Fulfillment
Listen to this interview to learn more about what Grace says about ending the separation between work and fulfillment. And check out her website, CareerRevisionist.com, and YouTube channel for more of Grace’s explanation about applying business principles and neurological science to your career choice process. Her mission is to help her clients create the career of their dreams and she has developed a system to help them do just that by discovering how to align it with who they are from the inside out.