Aptitude and Attitude: the prerequisites for a good career

By definition, your attitude represents your likes, dislikes, positive or negative views, judgments or degree of preference for something. Most attitudes are developed through personal experience or observation.

Your aptitude on the other hand is an innate or inbuilt component of your individual competency, which means that you will be competent doing the job that you have an aptitude for.

Keeping these two definitions in mind, you must evaluate your attitudes and aptitudes before embarking upon a career. In other words, you must know yourself well before taking all important decisions of your life.

A simple self-assessment can help you determine your attitudes and aptitudes. Just ask yourself, “What are my talents, skills and abilities? What kind of attitude do I have towards certain professions and life in general? What do I enjoy studying? What do I enjoy doing? If time and money were of no consequence, what would I love doing? What is it that my heart desires the most?” Write down the answers and dwell upon them. Make your career choice based upon your inherent strengths and passions.

Remember that life is a series of choices. At any given moment you are faced with two or more than two choices. You choose one of them, usually the one dictated by your external world, and move ahead. Your choice reflects what you believe is possible for you. Yet there are times when you wonder, ‘what if I had chosen the other option?’ If you are choosing a wardrobe or a diet plan, it is easy to retrace your steps, but if you are choosing a course of study, career or marriage, retracing the steps becomes slightly more difficult. Life doesn’t roll back for you to experience the other path, so your choices must originate in your aptitudes and attitudes.

Since each one of us is unique our aptitudes are also unique. They are placed inside us for some reason and that reason is evolution and growth. When we don’t have an aptitude for something, it is an indication that the task is not suited for us, similarly when we like to do something; it is proof enough that we are well equipped to do that job efficiently. When an aptitude is given to us, the mechanism for its fulfillment is also provided. All we need to do is apply our attitude in an optimum, positive and efficient manner.

Our aptitudes and desires are signs from the universe urging us to move in a particular direction. If we were to analyze every passionate desire that we have we would realize that its purpose is always to enhance us. Pursuing a career without correct attitude and required aptitude doesn’t take us very far because it does not involve the heart and doesn’t ignite our passion.

When we are involved in something we have an aptitude for, we automatically give our all to it. We devote all our energies to the task we love; and lend more power to the result of our actions by thoroughly enjoying our self.

For example most mothers have an aptitude for cooking and they cook with love, especially when they are cooking for their children. No wonder most of us remember our mother’s cooking. Similarly, when we do something we have an aptitude for, and do it with love and attention it shows in the result.

The best way to get aligned with a positive attitude and personal aptitude is by doing something that brings you pleasure, something that is fun, something that you may call your hobby or interest, something that relieves you from the pressure to perform, something you can indulge in purely for self-fulfillment and feel good factor.

When you pursue a career which is in alignment with your attitudes and aptitudes, you become more productive; doing your best and bringing out the best in others as well. On the other hand, when you do things you are not really passionate about; you procrastinate, get distracted, resist, and struggle. Your internal guidance system starts saying, “Not needed. Not now.”

When you start listening to your heart rather than following the dictates of the external world, your life will become much easier, and definitely much more fun. So don’t let anyone stop you from following your heart. Don’t let your passions remain buried under self-doubt.

Let your aptitudes and attitudes determine your true calling. If you are not too sure about your calling, try doing different things until you are certain. Trying out different things is not a waste of time as no time is ever wasted, no experience is ever in vain, and no life is ever useless. Each step you take will logically lead you to the next step, as long as you keep lifting the other foot to stay in momentum.

As you confidently take one step after the next, floodgates of universal support will open up for you. Your aptitudes and attitudes will put you in alignment with your life’s purpose. However long it may take, however many failures it may encompass, eventually you will get there. So, get going and conquer the world…………………..

(Courtesy:  Chitra Jha, The New Woman, June 2012)