Lifestyle Columnist, Amanda Alexander
Today’s Word with Amanda
You may have woken up today startled that at the age of 30+ feeling disappointed, that you’ve still not found your career ‘Niche’. Finding your ‘Niche’ can be very difficult, while for others it’s easy. Before finding my niche I had many rivers to cross, life was turned upside down- inside out-round and round, but eventually found it.
The singer Dolly Parton said “you gotta keep trying to find your niche…or make one of your own”. Sam Walton said “if everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction”. My takeaway from both quotes is that you’ve got to keep trying to find your niche even if it means going in the opposite direction for a while, otherwise in my opinion you’ll never live your best life.
But what does the word ‘Niche’ mean? Cambridge Dictionary – definition is…’a job or position that is very suitable for someone especially one they like…[or] a job…position that is suitable for a particular type of person’. There are two words in this definition that stands out to me, which is ‘suitable’ and ‘like’. People should be able to look at us and say, “yep she’s suitable for that position you can see that she likes what she’s doing!”
So why do some people find their niche sooner than others? I believe there are many reasons for this, generally people who find their niche early in life tend to know who they are in themselves, others like myself it takes longer because we didn’t know who we were. In a nutshell if you don’t know who you are, you will embark on many things you like but not necessarily doing things suited to you.
Despite my various jobs in the UK and USA one thing was clear, I loved listening to my colleague’s life stories, some of them were fascinating! As a child I listened to stories from the elderly. I wrote poetry, stage play scripts, short stories, and had a desire to turn those stories into films or TV series, not realising that what I was suited to was being a TV Media Journalist. My previous employment prepared me for today. If you haven’t found your niche yet don’t despair, you’re still breathing so there’s still time to find yours.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Am I doing a job I like or one that is suitable to me?
- If you’re a Christian, have you prayed and asked God to show you what you were created for?
- Write down all your skills,
- What job ignites passionate fire in you when you think about it?
- Do your skills and talents match your passion?
- Have you researched and found people in your field that you can learn from?
- Do you need to develop your skills and talents further?
Your answers will reveal the next step you need to take.
If you’d like to discuss this you may reach me on https://www.facebook.com/caribbeanhookup/ – With love Amanda x.
