The serious question of what I want to do

Self introspection is the key to understanding yourself and building your aspirations for a career change or changing gear.

Wild imaginations of being a writer, interests in travel and photograph immerged in my thoughts when I introspected. Albeit only to confuse me initially, they also led me to understand what I liked about those interests. They also moved me to an understanding of what motivated me.

The writer in me likes to observe people and their situations and experiences, how they overcome their obstacles and these days why they do what they do. It also makes me analyse and critique, since writing is a evolution. My first attempt at fiction was a story on how people from different backgrounds go back to their roots to find themselves clash in a single scene.

Travel interests are largely a projection of my curiosity in different cultures, their sense of identity, history, apart from plain old exciting vacation time. Photography, a recent serious interest was rooted from the fact that I love to observe what goes on in the mind of a photographer when he or she captures the image. Why that composition, why that perspective, how was the light and shadow used, what are the layers in his thoughts, how did it arouse curiosity and be interesting.

A personal project that I undertook for my granddad's 100th birth anniversary celebrations, was a photobook that I wanted to publish as a takeaway for everyone in the large extended family that participated in the day's celebrations of the wonderful self-made man that my grandfather was. It got me digging through loads of photo-albums across several houses of relatives. The more I dug in, the more it showed me how widespread his impact in not only his own, but his siblings families. Every picture has a story. I believed it when I heard them from my relatives. At that time I wondered on my 100th birth anniversary who would remember me and what would they remember me with. Food for thought.

All this led me to believe that I have pursued what I inherently liked. I love to be curious, analyse, collaborate, try different things, design and critique. I like to work on details and over the years understood that I need to put a stop to going indepth, once it starts being irrelevant in terms of the big picture. These talents have led me down the path of software design, something I've truly enjoyed. Software design exactly covers all these aspects of human attribute, apart from a desire to create.

So that's about where I came from and after that I had to continue to understand what I wanted to do, now that what my nascent qualities were revealed to me. The result would now be a exploration of into my future career path.

Serious about self-introspection?

• What activities do you love doing?
• Why do you love it? What does it bring out in you?
• Do you use those qualities at your work place and does it bring out the best in you?
• Analyse your career path and responsibilities shouldered. Reflect if you see your best traits shine in them.