Testdrive  Your  Dream  Job  in  Paris  (3)  By  Peter  de  Kuster      What  is  a  Dream  Job  for  You?      You  know    -­‐  if  you’re  considering  a  dream  job  –  that  the  push  toward  a  dream  career  is  not  just  about  how  you  spend  your  working  hours.  It’s  about  meshing  your  work  life  with  your  deepest  sense  of  yourself.  It’s  about  having  work  that  matches  your  values,  that  feeds  insteads  of  exhausts  you,  that  doesn’t  require  you  to  leave  your  priorities  at  home  and  check  your  heart  at  the  door.  When  we  imagine  a  dream  job,  we  imagine  a  job  where  we  are  fully  ourselves,  in  which  our  hearts  and  minds  are  equally  engaged.  This  engagement  is  what  people  feel  on  a  Testdrive  Your  Dreamjob.  And  once  they  reconnect  with  that  deepest  sense  of  self,  few  are  willing  to  return  to  the  status  quo.    

     Les  Deux  Magots:    one  of  the  places  from  which  Julia  Child  made  her  discovery  journey  of  Paris  and  undertook  her  Testdrive  Your  Dream  Job.          

Which  of  course  brings  up  the  next  question;  what  happens  after  the  Testdrive  Your  Dream  Job?  You  go;  you  fall  in  love  with  a  career;  you  leave  fired  up  to  work  in  your  chosen  field…and  then  what?  Sure,  you  had  a  great  couple  of  days,  weeks,  months;  sure,  you  know  what  you  want  to  do  –  but  there’s  a  whole  other  story  between  wanting  and  making  it  happen.  And  when  you  look  to  that  story  it’s  full  of  house  payments,  car  payments,  bills  for  the  kids,  food  bills,  health  care,  …  How  exactly  do  you  take  the  next  step?.    

   It  took  a  while  before  Julia  searched  for  her  Dream  Job  in  the  direction  of  her  passion  for  “French  Food”.  She  discovered  this  in  small  (jolly)  steps.      The  question  is  its  own  answer.  You  take  the  next  step.  The  next  small  step.  The  biggest  surprise  for  people  who  find  or  create  their  dream  job  is  that  it  doesn’t  have  to  happen  all  at  once.  It  doesn’t  have  to  be  an  all-­‐or-­‐nothing  leap  from  security  in  the  unknown.  Instead,  it  can  be  a  series  of  small  steps  that  you  take  only  as  you  feel  ready.  Sure,  there  are  the  few  really  bold  (or  independently  wealthy)  Dream  Job  Hunters  who  cut  the  ties  to  their  previous  careers  and  hurl  themselves  full-­‐time  into  new  ones.      But  most  people  take  it  more  slowly.  They  continue  at  their  current  jobs  while  transitioning  gradually  into  the  dream.  They  do  research,  they  write  a  business  story,  they  figure  out  how  to  begin  their  new  career  without  taking  on  more  risk  than  they  can  handle.  Some  go  to  school  to  get  more  training.  

Some  dedicate  a  period  of  time  to  paying  off  debt  and  building  savings  so  they’ll  have  funds  for  their  new  careers.  Some  find  work  in  the  new  field  while  they  put  together  a  business  of  their  own.  The  path  and  the  timeline  vary  from  person  to  person;  what  they  all  have  in  common,  though,  is  the  passion  and  the  inspiring  story  to  move  ahead.      

   Your  Dream  Job  is  where  Your  Heart  is      Ofcourse,    after  a  Testdrive  Your  Dream  Job,  some  people  find  that  the  job  they  tried  was  not  the  job  they  thought  they  wanted.    Finding  that  you  don’t  love  your  dream  job  as  much  as  you’d  hoped  can  be  disappointing;  the  dream  is  crashed,  the  “what  next?”  question  is  alarmingly  reopened.  But  even  people  who  have  that  experience  usually  consider  their  test-­‐drive  a  success;  they’re  thankful  that  it  showed  them  what  they  didn’t  want  before  they  ventured  further.        For  most  people  –  whether  or  not  they  find  their  dream  job  the  journey  is  like  opening  the  door  to  a  long  –  closed  room.  Sunlight  and  fresh  air  touch  something  that  has  long  been  in  the  dark,  and  the  result  is  a  renewed  sense  of  self  and  a  new  sense  of  possibility.      Testdriving  your  dream  job  will  be  fun  (it  is  a  vacation,  after  all);  it  may  be  exhausting    (people  tend  to  work  hard  at  the  jobs  they  love);  it  will  be  

exhilarating  to  spend  time  with  someone  who  works  at  his  or  her  passion.  And  it  will  probably  leave  you  changed.      So  don’t  make  a  Testdrive  Your  Dream  Job  if  you’re  afraid  of  sparking  something  passionate  inside  you.  Do  it  only  if  you’re  ready  to  be  renewed.      

   The  quote  from  Julia  Child  “Bon  Appetit”  who  became  famous  as  the  culinary    writer  who  made  the  french  kitchen  accesible  for  the  American  audience.      But  it  started  with  her  “Testdrive  your  Dream  Job”.