It’s only natural that at some point in your life you are going to wonder where you are and more importantly where you are going. As we approach Christmas, work may be powering down but heading into 2018, what are we gearing up for? For many, thoughts of: Who am I? and What am I good at? Will be an all too familiar niggle. We know that to do our best work, we need to be our true selves and really enjoy what we do.
It’s easy for some of us. We have clear ideas about who we are and what we want to achieve in life. Some of us have very obvious talents and that makes it very obvious what we should be doing. However, not all of us can see as clearly as we would like. Our paths aren’t clearly defined for us. This can be because we do not understand our own characteristics and our own attributes and virtues properly. 
Career-wise, if it all seems a bit daunting and you do, indeed, need some form of guidance to kick-start what will most likely be a prosperous course of action, I have some good news for you. There is a personality test available developed by the George Washington University and by Professor Terry Tracey of Arizona State University. The test asks 20 questions to determine your aptitude in six separate skills areas. These are ‘Realistic’, ‘Investigative’, ‘Artistic’, ‘Social’, ‘Enterprising’ and ‘Conventional’. The test is available here on TIME’s website.
These are questions designed not simply to pigeon-hole you in one category but instead to determine where your core strengths lie. It’s more than likely you will show an aptitude for more than one category. For example, for choreographers or fashion designers, you would have to show capacity in the areas of ‘Artistic’ and ‘Enterprising’.
Furthermore, the tests should also give you a good idea about what areas you do not show any potential ability in. So, essentially, whilst the test’s intention isn’t to directly deter you from pursuing something you perhaps aren’t that professionally equipped to pursue, it should offer you some guidance concerning which areas in your professional life need improvement.
It’s also important to remember that this is all a bit of fun and that nothing is set in stone. If you feel passionate about something and also think you are confident enough to pursue it, of course, I’d ask you to go for it, regardless of what a test on the internet says.
This test, then, is for those of us who need that little nudge in the right direction. Whilst positively informing you of your professional virtues, it can be encouraging and just the right motivation some of us need to take the plunge into our prospective careers.
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