Kickstart Your Portfolio Career: Part 2 of 5
How I learned to make aligned decisions & discover what work lights me up
Welcome to the second installment of a five-part miniseries, 'Kickstart Your Portfolio Career.' This August, I am hosting a Free Workshop where I will dive deeper into each tip and what it actually takes to launch your portfolio career while maintaining your day job.
In this post, I’ll share specific examples of how the Human Design system helped me understand myself better, make aligned decisions, and connect with my body’s intelligence to discover what work truly lights me up.
If you’re curious about the origin story of how I discovered Human Design and overcame my blocks around using this unique tool, you can read it here.
(HINT: My MBA-trained brain kept me from using it for years!)
How I Used Human Design to Help Me Launch My Portfolio Career
One of the toughest challenges when starting on this wild journey of being a Portfolio Careerist is unpacking what type of work you want to spend your time doing.
It’s easy to fall back into the same patterns from corporate life: work hard > climb ladders > overwork > stop enjoying your job > burnout > feel lost about what to do next.
The hardest question I had to answer was: What work lights me up?
This is where Human Design came into play. Instead of overthinking and trying to logically figure everything out, it helped me reconnect with my body’s intelligence and tune into what I enjoyed versus what I thought I ‘should be doing.’
Here are four specific examples of how the Human Design System unlocked what truly lights me up and ultimately shaped my Portfolio Career:
01. TUNING INTO WHAT WORK EXCITES ME
I used to accept new work opportunities because I was more excited about the job title and salary than the actual job itself. This inevitably led to dissatisfaction just a few weeks into the role.
Through Human Design, I discovered I am a Sacral Generator and the guidance is that I can determine what truly ‘lights me up’ by tuning into my gut instinct.
I decided to test this out by evaluating new opportunities through this lens; I’d ask myself: “Does this light me up?” or “Do I have the energy for this?” I’d instantly get an expansive feeling in my tummy if it was a YES, or I’d feel contracted or nothing at all if it was a NO.
I began to notice a pattern: whenever I accepted a role that felt contracting, I would rationalise it by telling myself, “I should do this because it looks good on my CV.”
Vs.
Whenever I said Yes to something I felt excited, I could literally feel myself growing bigger and getting more expansive from the inside out. Soon I began to notice that I would have the most incredible opportunities come into my universe each time I honoured this feeling. A couple of notable examples were being asked to speak at The Dream Festival in Sintra to 200 people and speak to the Oatly London team about my unconventional career moves.
02. MAKING ALIGNED DECISIONS
I have always been a decisive decision-maker, but through my corporate experience, I came to believe that my decisiveness needed to be supplemented with additional ‘strategic thinking’. This often led to analysis paralysis, and I would end up making decisions based on logic rather than what I truly wanted.
When I discovered Human Design, I learned that my decision-making process works in the moment and is best with yes/no questions rather than open-ended ones.
Initially, this seemed strange to me as I was so used to overanalysing, but I decided to give it a try.
Here’s a simple example that demonstrates the effectiveness of this process:
When my husband asks if I want to eat Italian or Japanese for dinner, I ask him to rephrase the question so I can answer with a Yes or No.
For instance, he would rephrase it to, “Do you want to eat Italian?”
This way, I could tune into my sacral and respond clearly with a Yes or No.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but this process has changed my life!
As I started to trust my unique decision-making process, I started to implement this when making important life decisions. And then as I gained confidence, I brought this into the workplace and used it with my team.
As a side note, there are seven unique decision-making strategies in Human Design. Many people have been socialised to suppress their natural processes to fit in with their environment.
03. LEANING INTO MY NATURAL EXPERIMENTATION PROCESS
In my Human Design, I have a 3/5 profile which outlines how I am meant to navigate life and find work that excites me.
My Line 3 carries the energy of experimentation, known as The Pioneer, while my Line 5, called The Messenger, is about sharing findings on a broad scale. Together, these energies drive me to experiment and then share what I’ve learned with the world.
For much of my career, I resisted this natural inclination. I tried to fit into the conventional executive corporate mold. Although I managed to shape myself the way the corporate world wanted me to be, I was never comfortable nor did I feel fulfilled.
Everything changed when I decided to follow my excitement for experimentation.
For the longest time, I had an intense desire to combine my skills in inner development and venture building to help others find work they love. Every mentor I had advised me that this was a ‘bad’ idea. They said I was on the C-Suite track and that the money and experience I’d gain there would far outweigh anything I’d get from what they dismissed as my ‘hobby project.’
But this passion only grew stronger with time. By 2019, I was fed up with feeling unfulfilled and decided to embrace my Line 3 experimenter. I began sharing my insights through my newsletter, which my Line 5 Messenger absolutely loved.
And then with every experiment I stepped closer to having the confidence to dive into my full-time Portfolio Career and in February this year, I did!
04. USING FRUSTRATION AS A GUIDE
In Human Design, each person has a Personal Career Success Theme and a Distraction Theme.
The Success Theme represents a person's innate sense of fulfillment and satisfaction when they are properly aligned in their professional environment. On the other hand, the Distraction Theme shows when they are deviating from this sense of fulfillment.
For me, my Personal Career Success Theme is Satisfaction, while my Distraction Theme is Frustration.
Initially, I tried to pinpoint moments of Satisfaction in my work but only seemed to encounter frustration.
So, I started there. Whenever I felt frustrated, I used it as a signal to pause and examine where my work was out of alignment. I asked myself: What specific situation was causing the frustration? Who were the people involved? What particular aspects of the work were unsatisfying?
Following my frustration turned out to be a bigger game changer than I expected. I began to notice patterns, helping me understand the type of work I genuinely enjoyed versus the work I thought I 'should' enjoy.
Final Thoughts
For the longest time, I hesitated to share the impact this tool had on me. I understand it's not for everyone, but for me, it was a critical part of my journey to understand myself and the kind of work I wanted to do in this life.
In The Portfolio Career Club, inner development work plays a crucial role in discovering the shape of the Portfolio Career a person wants to launch. Often, this step is skimmed over with light values work and personality profiles, quickly moving on to job titles and industries.
In my experience, the real value and space for discovery lie here. Taking the time to delve into the depths of our desires, understanding what we enjoy, and paying attention to areas of frustration, anger, or bitterness can lead us to a fulfilling and meaningful vocation.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Human Design is the only tool for this work. There are several other tools and frameworks that can aid in inner development. The important thing is not to skip this step.
Find the tool that works best for you and get to know yourself on a deeper level—this is essential for living a Portfolio Life that truly lights you up.
Additional Resources
Interested in learning more? This August, I am hosting a Free Workshop on How To Kickstart Your Portfolio Career where I will dive deeper into this topic and what it actually takes to launch your portfolio career.
So interesting, thanks for sharing this 🩷. I don’t know much about Human Design, although it’s been mentioned about five or six times in conversations over the last few weeks (a sign perhaps?) but a lot in here resonated with me anyway. My telltale sign for when I’m out of alignment or off track is feeling resentment or bitterness about what I’m doing. As soon as I feel myself slipping into that state I know I need to make a change. This has really helped me assess opportunities for my own portfolio career, because I can immediately feel if something is going to make me excited or drained.
Can’t wait for the next few parts of this series! Xx