Career Pathing

Once in a while I will have someone that books an appointment to plot out their career. This to me is always a very interesting conversation. Most people will come in and say " I have career aspirations. I would like to be in x position in the next 2 years." Some even follow up with their big career dream "I want to run the company someday."
Career paths are riddled with twists, turns and some setbacks or pauses. It's not a straight road and sometimes the path may not have even been paved yet. Because career pathing can be tricky I like to hear a person out on what their vision is and then ask:

• What do you want out of your life?
• What motivates you most?
  
• What makes you feel full?
  
• Let's say you don't get to this x goal. What then?
  

This is not me trying to be difficult or not being supportive. Having goals is a great thing. What I generally question is whether or not we are all thinking about career goals in a vacuum and not incorporating the career goals as part of a greater plan to be a whole, fulfilled human being. I often hear people say that they would feel fulfilled, not a failure, etc, if they just reach that 1 goal, or get to that high level title. In the four questions above, the intent is to get to that same place without depending on something that may morph and change with the passage of time, industry evolution, innovation and all the things we can't predict may happen in our chosen fields.
If you look at your career path without titles or names, what does it look like? Are you helping people? Are you creating something? At what scale? Where in the world? To me these questions get to the core of who you want to be in your career. No title needed. And the byproduct is that you feel more fulfilled because you are in your sweet spot.
So, what's your career path without the titles? Who are you in that space and how does it support and enrich the rest of your life?
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