By Naomi de Barra, C.Psychol, MSc, BSc, Chartered Psychologist and recent guest on St James’ Place Financial Adviser Academy’s podcast The Switch

In my role as a Chartered Psychologist, I always like to remind people, “You are you!” We are all different and our brains are unique. Understanding your motivations, values, and the workings of your mind, can help you craft a career that is both fulfilling and sustainable.

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations

Motivations can be extrinsic (motivated by external factors) or intrinsic (motivated by internal factors). When we understand both, we can balance them to steer our careers in a direction that works best for us. 

Examples of extrinsic motivators include money and recognition from others. When it comes to money, or salary, rarely is it a motivator in and of itself. More often, it is what you want the money for and what it will bring into your life – whether that’s freedom, stability, status or power.

Intrinsic motivations are the things that fill you up just by doing them, such as walking or being outside.

As human beings we often look for external validation, or recognition. It can feel like the only validation that’s worthwhile, but that’s not true. Self-validation is important and can often come from intrinsic motivations. 

Ultimately, your extrinsic motivators won’t keep you engaged for long. A career driven solely by factors like status and wealth, will be constantly up and down. What is more likely to keep you engaged is doing what you enjoy, just for the sake of doing it.

Establishing your values as you go

“What do you want to be?” It’s such an interesting question. The question should be, “What makes you happy?” instead. This is true especially for young people, who have not yet had a chance to explore. Who you are and what you want in your 20s is likely going to be very different to what you want in your 40s.

When we talk about careers, we often use subjective terms like ‘meaningful’ or ‘stable’. To establish the kind of career you’d like, you need to question your values and what terms like ‘meaningful’ and ‘stability’ mean to you. 

Stability, for example, might mean being able to afford the mortgage every month but for another, stability might mean having a full fridge every week. Your interpretation of these words is likely to change throughout your life. 

I recently spoke on The Switch with Gee Foottit, a career change podcast by St James’ Place Financial Adviser Academy. I said that, when I started out, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I just knew that I didn’t like the typical educational environment of school as I couldn’t control what I learnt, and I also knew I liked people. Once I knew I could learn about the things I was interested in such as people, soft skills, and the world, I enjoyed learning.

Harnessing your personal ‘flavour’ into a superpower

A huge area of my work is around neurodiversity and helping people to understand their brains from a cognitive perspective. As human beings, we all spend too much time trying to be the same and trying to fit in. But we are all uniquely different. The more we can understand our unique contribution and our own ‘flavour’ – whether we are brain-same (i.e. neurotypical), brain-different (i.e. neurodivergent) – the more we’ll know what we want to contribute and how well we can do it. 

Professional support can provide cognitive assessments, or workplace assessments. This helps with self-understanding. Strategies and assistive technology can align the brilliant parts of your brain to your working environment to help you get through your day – so you reach your full potential.

For example, for those who have dyslexia, you might choose to verbally record your thoughts to share with others, rather than write them down. It transforms something that could have potentially caused anxiety into a superpower that sets you apart.

In conclusion

To establish a career that is truly fulfilling, you need to take the time to understand your own brain. What matters to you, and what motivates you, will change throughout your life. Regularly ask yourself what the ten things are that you need for daily happiness, and for you to feel as though your career is going in the right direction, for you. Then question how these requirements align with your current job, or a potential job. 

These ten things should be reassessed, and can change, as we move through different life stages. But at every stage of life, we should make sure we take the time to recognise, and celebrate, our own unique mindset.

www.naomidebarra.com