While there may be no "recipe" for creating the ideal career, there are quality ingredients that help to make your career richly rewarding. Since each of us is a unique person with specific needs and wants, we can follow an overall guide as long as we personalize and customize it to suit us. Use the list of questions suggested in deciding on and gathering the ingredients for your "ideal career recipe." Be patient with the process. The ingredients are not easy to identify. And, just like cooking, it may take some experimentation to arrive at the perfect recipe. And, as with fine food, the process of creation can be as pleasurable as the final result. Bon a-petit!

Who am I?

The main ingredient in your ideal career "recipe" is you. Knowing yourself is the key to selecting all the other ingredients. Your answers to this question will help identify your skills, abilities, and values and reveal important relationships. For example, a response of one of my clients, "I am a wife who is described by my husband as a super-efficient Home Manager, a mother to two lovely girls who enjoy my fussing over them and a customer service executive who is often acknowledged as helpful." This clearly indicates a person who is efficient, caring and concerned both in her personal and professional life. Attributes many employers will be delighted to have. Remember, as you answer this question it goes beyond your occupation to tell you "who" you are, your values, personality, traits and attitude to those around you. You can 'translate' this to meaningful statements about your occupational profile if you have to describe yourself at an interview.

What am I passionate about?

A career without passion and meaning is like an ice cream sundae without any topping or decoration! Answering this question helps you recognize what gives spark to your internal fire. You can use these ingredients to add flavor and zest to your career. Perhaps the items you pinpoint will help you create a list for activities that makes your work challenging. Or you might sprinkle them into the mix to brighten your career when it has becomes dull. Focusing on your passion also pulls you through your career rather than pushing and prodding yourself to pursue a career you don't truly care about.

What qualities do the people I admire possess?

This question can be an inspiring journey toward finding the ingredients you are already comfortable using as well as ingredients with which you might like to experiment. While the question asks you to list qualities of other people, it provides a back door to identifying your own strengths, which can sometimes be difficult to do. Your responses also highlight characteristics that you might like to develop in yourself. For instance, a lady who admired the nurses and doctors in the battle against SARS for their "courage, resourcefulness, compassion, and tenacity," might rediscover her own resourcefulness and compassion. Using this exercise, she may also decide that she would like to display more tenacity in achieving her career goals.

What do I need to be my best?

Answers here make it easier for you to bring precision and specificity to your ingredient list. For instance, if you merely know that you need plenty of sleep to feel rested, you have only vague information. If however, you determine that you need eight hours of sleep, on a firm bed, and need to wake up to gentle music for optimal living, the specificity of your needs will make it much easier to satisfy them. Answering this question will help you draw up a very precise list of ingredients rather than settling for whatever happens to turn up. You will probably go to work better energized and refreshed!

What nurtures, renews, or inspires me?

Careers are wonderfully varied and therefore we experience a mix of highs and lows. The ingredients you identify in this question often create the 'food' - things which nourish your body, mind and heart, especially when you're traveling in the valleys of your career and want to get to the highlands. How you find comfort, support, energy, and motivation will be demonstrated by your answers here. Also, when you believe your career is taking a downturn and you want an upswing, simply add a dash of any of these ingredients into your daily routine to keep you feeling connected, supported, and in balance. Simply remind yourself of these answers and take one of the actions that revitalize you. If you need help with your career recipe, consult a career 'chef' a.k.a. career guide or career coach!