How to Dream
Join globally renowned author and Columbia Business School professor Dr. Sheena Iyengar as she explains how to approach your dreams with a new perspective. Learn to reflect on what you long to accomplish and what stands in your way.
Career Anchors
What drives you to be good at your job?
Career anchors are based on your values, desires, motivations, and abilities. They are the immovable parts of your professional self-image that guide you throughout your career journey.
Try this short GLOBIS Unlimited course to identify which of the eight career anchors is yours!
Leadership with Passion through Kokorozashi
The key ingredient to success? Passion.
Finding your kokorozashi will unify your passions and skills to create positive change in society. This GLOBIS Unlimited course will help you develop the values and lifelong goals you need to become a strong, passion-driven leader.
Do you have a dream job? As a child, many of us do. We imagine ourselves as firemen, astronauts, and veterinarians. But as we get older, things change. We find new passions and interests, but we also realize jobs are more complicated and competitive than they seemed. And sometimes, our dream jobs are not what we thought they would be.
Does that mean we should give up on having a dream job?
At a recent GLOBIS USA Kokorozashi Seminar held at Plug and Play Technical Center in Sunnyvale, CA, Ayako Lainez and Ivan Rabb shared how they got their first dream jobs—and how they later moved on to new passions.
In my years as a lecturer at GLOBIS University, I have taught MBA students about finding a kokorozashi to guide their career path. Kokorozashi is defined as “a personal mission that unifies the passions and skills of a professional to create positive change in society.”
Your kokorozashi can be a kind of guiding star, not simply to find a specific job that appeals to you, but to think of what meaning and impact you want from your career.
Next Article
4 Steps to Bring Your Personal Mission to Life
Getting Your First Dream Job
It’s hard to say how many people find their dream jobs right away. Typically, dream jobs refer to roles that are regarded very highly: doctors, lawyers, athletes, artists, corporate executives, management consultants, and investment bankers, to name a few. Many of these require extensive education, training, and years of experience.
But the original spark for a dream job often comes from three places:
Career Anchors
What drives you to be good at your job?
Career anchors are based on your values, desires, motivations, and abilities. They are the immovable parts of your professional self-image that guide you throughout your career journey.
Try this short GLOBIS Unlimited course to identify which of the eight career anchors is yours!
- Natural talents
- Learned skills
- Outside guidance
Natural Talents
Rabb, blessed with athletic talents and a willingness to listen, was drafted to play professional basketball. Hard work to hone his game took him to the FIBA U16 Americas Championship and FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup. In 2017, he was drafted into the NBA by the Orlando Magic and later traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Learned Skills
Lainez, having learned both English and Japanese as a child and discovering a passion for writing, got her first job at Morgan Stanley, a renowned investment bank. There, she was engaged in domestic and cross-border M&As.
Outside Guidance
Some people, including myself, find their dream jobs where passion meets the will to please parents, teachers, or other figures whom they respect and admire. I chose to become a director of a public firm when I was thirty-four, largely because I felt it was the expectation after I graduated from Harvard Business School.
Next Article
The Little Book of Ikigai Can Help You Find Purpose
Exploring Your Dream Job through the Lens of Your Kokorozashi
No matter how you find your first dream job, it’s worth stepping back and considering if that job is (or continues to be) everything you imagined.
Your kokorozashi lies at the intersection of your personal values and social interest. Arguably, your true dream job will not fall outside of these parameters. Ensuring you’re on the right track requires some intentional reflection.
Leadership with Passion through Kokorozashi
The key ingredient to success? Passion.
Finding your kokorozashi will unify your passions and skills to create positive change in society. This GLOBIS Unlimited course will help you develop the values and lifelong goals you need to become a strong, passion-driven leader.
Explore your origins.
I tell my MBA students at GLOBIS University to go ask their parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, and uncles about their early years. Find people who have known you all your life, and have them tell you about you.
What kind of a child were you? Who gave you your name and why?
You can also talk to your old teachers, have lunch with close friends, reach out to past coworkers or your first boss. All of this will help you understand who you are and make your personal values clear.
Define your current interests.
Next, think about your social interests. When you open a news site or blog, where do you start reading? Are you drawn to business news, politics, entertainment, sports, or something else? Consider why that industry draws your eye.
What you enjoy reading, watching, or otherwise hearing about can give you key insights into what matters to you.
Find the intersection of personal values and social interests.
Finally, take a moment to think about the possibilities at the intersection of your personal values and social interests. Try to write a one-sentence kokorozashi statement and see if it excites you.
The important thing in this process is to relax and follow your heart, not your head. Your brain will distract you with public opinion, but your heart will say what is right specifically for you.
Share and consider further study.
Once you have defined your kokorozashi, share it with your friends and families. Ask them what they think. Keep your curiosity up—remember that you’re still exploring, even now.
To prepare for your next move, consider furthering your education with a program, such as an MBA or certificate course, that is in line with your kokorozashi.
Changing Your Dream Job to Follow a New Passion
Discovering that your first dream job doesn’t fit with your kokorozashi isn’t a sign of failure—it’s a step toward growth and self-actualization. The experiences and knowledge you gained from that stage of your life will provide a lot of value going forward.
How to Dream
Join globally renowned author and Columbia Business School professor Dr. Sheena Iyengar as she explains how to approach your dreams with a new perspective. Learn to reflect on what you long to accomplish and what stands in your way.
When it comes to finding true dream jobs, synchronicities play a big role. Synchronicities are a series of coincidences which, upon closer inspection, prove to be engineered opportunities by your heart and will.
Lainez thought it would be a one-off gig when she was asked to interpret at a para-equestrian horse-riding event. But it was there she met an inspiring coach and witnessed para-equestrian riders performing as well as any professional athlete. This sparked a sense of empathy at work, as well as an interest that eventually led her back to the US for a master’s in special education and teaching. She has since devoted herself to teaching.
Lainez says her secret is being present and doing what you love.
During his two seasons playing for the Memphis Grizzlies, Rabb discovered mindfulness, meditation, and mental health. His career in the NBA had begun to feel stressful, so when a close teammate suggested he take a break, it suddenly seemed like the right thing to do. He has since started Prosperity Rising, his own business that provides basketball camps and mindfulness consulting services.
Rabb says you must open your heart up, follow the energy, and study the model you that you dream to become.
Pursuing your dream isn’t just about finding job openings or a work environment you like. You need to face your personal value, recognize your social interests, and define your kokorozashi. Write that one-sentence kokorozashi that raises your energy. Then seize the synchronicities that find you.
Related Articles
How Recruiting Companies in Japan Are Connecting Foreign Grads with Global Careers
This Gen Z Entrepreneur is Leading With Passion in the New Business Era
