Scott Schimmel (00:02.35)
One of the most frequent conversations I've been in for the past over two decades with students particularly and friends of mine and almost anybody else I ever talked to is always around what are you doing? What are you gonna do next? What's the plan? And specifically, especially with young people, they will often say, I don't know. And then it presupposes that there would be an answer to that question. How do I figure out what to do?
What do I do? So in this kind of short episode, what I want to offer, because there are a variety of avenues, pathways, perspectives, philosophies that people have when it comes to this. And what I've been doing is finding the absolute most effective things to do to figure out what to do. About 2006, I was working for a large nonprofit and I was on this management track.
And before I was considered qualified, I had to participate in this personality talent assessment. And I developed quite a bit of cynicism towards personality and talent assessments, particularly because I had gamed them myself all through high school and college. Every single time that I ever took one of those like aptitude tests or career inventories,
I skewed the answers to give me the results that I wanted to get so that I could get the feeling that I was hoping for. Certainty, clarity, impressing others. Every single time I took it, four or five times over the years, the results came back, lo and behold, Scott, you are wired to go into business, specifically international finance and or accounting. And I would show that to my parents, to my professors, to my friends.
and it would make me feel good and secure and safe. The problem was I was lying. So this time around, when I was asked to do another one of those assessments, I was like, okay, whatever. Instead I did it and what it asked me to do was very different than all the other sorts of tests. The other sorts of tests are like, do you like this, do you like that? Are you more like this, or are you more like that?
Scott Schimmel (02:21.59)
And then you just kind of within 30 seconds, you've got it. Okay, I'd like to talk to one person at a party, not a bunch of people. I like complex tasks. I don't like to be micromanaged, that sort of thing. In this case, what they asked me to do was remember, I think it was five, five stories from my past and go back as far as I can remember, stories that I would say I am proud of, achievements, accomplishments.
So step one, and here's the simple step, and there's an article that goes along with this, if you wanna kind of use this as a worksheet. Step one, think about those stories. For me, I made a timeline, I thought of elementary school, middle school, high school, college, those were like the different brackets. And then I thought of in school and out of school. And that just kind of helped me remember, and I started, I thought of quite a bit, some that seemed small, even as I looked at them, I'm like, eh.
Some that were like, no, that's really big. But in the process of writing down which ones I wanted to put up as like top five, I remember having like this voice that was filtering. Well, that's not really a big achievement or accomplishment. In fact, I wouldn't really tell anybody that it was, but it is on my list. And the encouragement in the kind of subtext of this assessment was go with your gut, whatever feels significant to you.
Go with it, top five. So step one, recall events where you achieved, accomplished something that you're proud of. Step two is to think about and write out in detail what did you do to contribute to that achievement? Like first I did this, then I did that. I mean, just break it down as many steps as you can. That's step two. And then step three, express, kind of write out or think aloud.
Why, what was it about that that was so fulfilling or satisfying? So step one, the event, step two, what did you do specifically? Step three, how would you kind of characterize that accomplishment? I turned in five of them. That was it. That was the whole assessment. And then we scheduled an appointment. I had like a coach or facilitator who was gonna give me my results. They sent me the report a few minutes ahead of time. And I was like, okay. And then we got on the call.
Scott Schimmel (04:40.142)
And what happened over the next hour, hour and a half was nothing short of magic. These voodoo people knew exactly who I was. Stuff I had never shared before in my entire life, they nailed me to a T. I mean, stuff that I hadn't even thought about yet. As I was listening to them, you're the kind of person who I was like, yes, how did you know? Are you, do you have like a worm inside my internet?
Are you listening to my conversations? Are you reading my journal, my diary? Are you listening to my prayers? How did you figure this out? And it comes from this assessment called SEMA, System for Understanding Your Motivated Abilities. I might get the acronym wrong there. Motivated Abilities, that's for sure. And there's a map, there's patterns. The way the test goes, it's been around since 1961, people always have patterns, themes, threads that connect.
And you can absolutely, I highly encourage you to take this test of all the other ones that are out there. Highly encourage this one. You could take it, I think it's $29, give you a report. It's more than worth the 30 minutes and the 30 bucks. But you can also do it really on your own. You could do it kind of just on your own journal, talking with a friend. And the process for sure is writing and reflecting, but it's also talking out loud, looking for themes and threads. On their website, you can also find,
they've created categories, 27, there's different versions of it, but I've seen 27 categories where you are, you see the threads connect over these different achievements and different accomplishments. And you might have a top one, two or three in terms of the buckets that they've seen, the patterns that they've seen. And what this does for you, gosh, it's such a different perspective for how to figure out what to do with my life. Because fundamentally what I want,
and I think you want is to feel like you are on this autonomous path towards something that you desire. You are moving towards something that you want, that you're wired for. You're trying to make an impact in the world. You're trying to do something on this planet. You're trying to express yourself. You're trying to be a part of something, contribute to something. And all the other tests, yeah, understand your strengths is helpful. I'm not gonna downplay that. Understand your personality.
Scott Schimmel (07:04.142)
There's all these different layers and pieces that we put together in new school. But specifically this one, I think is the number one thing I'd recommend. The most helpful lens. As you talk about yourself, as you explore opportunities, this is what I'm drawn to. This is what I'm interested in. This is what I'm motivated towards. Now, to what degree can this opportunity that I'm exploring, this conversation I'm having, whether it's a company, a career fields, a major, a college campus, even a group of friends,
Can I express that here? Can I be that way here? Will there be enough here for me to pursue that? And if you can't, that's kind of one lens. The other lens that's really helpful with this is to bring that, it's up to you to bring that into the situation that you're interested in. Let's say you're interested in education and teaching and your thing is excellence. You're just drawn to excellence. Okay, do you?
Like it's up to you. No one's gonna come alongside you and say hey make sure you're excellent You might but probably not You might even look around and say gosh everyone here is kind of like satisfied with the status quo Just getting through the day getting through the year Mediocrity and that's the culture. That's the vibe. That's the water I'm swimming in but that's not how you're wired. That's not how you're motivated. So We've recalled it reflect on it dig deep remember what motivates you and and apply your thing?
your unique motivation pattern to that context. Clues of motivation, that's the name of this episode. There's an article that goes along with it and everyone's got one. You've got patterns of what draws you, what motivates you. Figure it out and go do it.
