This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 43, Three Ways to Be Somebody in Your Career.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Hey, Michelle, feeling great today.
And you? I'm awesome. I'm awesome. I'm feeling pretty energetic.
I don't know why, but... So anyway, well, today I wanted to share a really cool quote with you.
Cool. I can't wait to hear it. Today's a Deep Thoughts Thursday, so it's a good day for it.
That's right. That's what I was thinking.
So, all right. Are you ready? It's kind of a funny quote, but it also has a lesson behind it.
Cool. Let's hear it. Okay. Here we go. Okay.
It's by the actress Lily Tomlin. And the quote is, I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
Oh, that is kind of cute, isn't it? Yeah, I thought it was cute.
It's like a cute with a moral, right? Yeah, exactly.
With a deeper lesson, but it's still kind of light.
Yeah, definitely. So, I mean, there are a few things to talk about with this quote.
I mean, what does it mean to you when somebody says to be somebody?
What does that mean? Yeah. So it kind of means to do something important with your life, to create something with your life.
I'm thinking along the lines of career here, but it could be something even bigger than career, just to have meaning in your life.
I like that to have meaning in your life.
Definitely. Yeah. Just to instead of just going your day to day and just kind of living and being and that's it.
To be somebody is to give greater meaning.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. To have like a purpose in your life and to kind of be special in a way.
Right. Right. Totally. To be somebody. A lot of people.
Sorry. No, I was going to say it could also mean to be famous.
That's what I was going to say. Same thing.
Yeah. A lot of times people use, oh, to be somebody, to talk about some degree of fame in some way.
That's right. Yes. Yes. Okay. So she said, I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
So when we say specific, what are we talking about?
So she should have kind of named exactly what she wanted to be, who she wanted to be.
Right, exactly. Because when we say to be somebody, we're talking... She's kind of using somebody in two different ways, right?
So the phrase to be somebody means to be famous, to be special, something like that.
But then somebody also means... you know, something not specific, right?
Like anything, anyone, or it doesn't matter, you know?
So now we're saying, but she says, but now I realize I should have been more specific means I wanted to be somebody, but I didn't know who.
I should have said who it was, or I should have said exactly what that thing was that I wanted in my life and gone after that.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, I mean, I'm curious, Lindsay, like, what do you think about this quote?
Do you agree with it? Yeah, I agree with it because I think it's really important in life to be intentional, right?
To set intentions and to, first of all, to sit and figure out what it is that we want.
And it doesn't happen just in a day, right?
It's a process of inquiry throughout our lives.
But I think you need to have that as a priority, you know, setting an intention for where we want to be.
Because if not, then we can end up anywhere.
Right, right. And there's this phrase, you know, like spread yourself too thin, right?
So you're trying lots of different things and you can't focus on one specific thing.
So you can't really excel. Also a big danger.
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I'm with you, Lindsay, on that one.
So, I mean, I thought that we could give our listeners, you know, some ways.
I mean, we're talking a lot about career here, right?
Yeah. So, maybe we can give our listeners some tips on how to be more specific in their career.
Okay, well, let's do it. So... Okay. All right.
Let's see. So what's tip number one? Yeah.
So one thing that I think is always good is to work with some kind of mentor or some kind of coach.
Right. I know that here in the U.S. we have a big system where a lot of people work with coaches, all different kinds of coaches.
Right. Michelle, we have health coaches, love coaches, dating coaches.
You have life coaches, career coaches. Right.
Right. Coaching is huge and it might not be a huge industry in your country, but if it's not, you can always work with a mentor, someone that's just a little older than you, you know, maybe just 10 years ahead of you and has found their career path.
And maybe they could sit down with you once every couple of months and you can talk through your career goals and dreams.
Right. And maybe they can give you some tips on how to achieve them or let you at least know like some other tips and some other like possible things you could do to find yourself, right?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think it's really important to have that someone to kind of just bounce ideas off of and someone who's willing to listen, right?
So that's one thing that you guys want to be careful of when you choose a coach or a mentor.
Make sure that they're not just putting their own ideas onto you. they need to be better at listening than speaking, I think.
Yeah, that's true. And also, I mean, to help find your coach, you might want to do, like, it could be either a professional coach or it could be, like you said, Lindsay, about a mentor.
So maybe you could do, like, what we call them informational interviews to help find someone who could be a mentor of sorts for you.
So, you know, contacting people in the field, seeing if they get a cup of coffee with you so you can, we say, pick their brains about... about the field.
Pick their brains. I like that expression, to pick their brain.
And so identifying someone who's maybe in a position that you think you want to be in and reaching out to them and saying, hey, yeah, can I buy you a cup of coffee?
Can I have a half an hour of your day? And I'd love to pick your brain.
And I'd love to chat with you to see what it's like to work in your career, in your work, what you do.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think that can be really helpful.
I mean, to have help, to have somebody who is there for you, who has your best interests at heart.
Completely. And that's not easy to find, but you can do it.
Okay, second tip. What do you think, Lindsay?
So I guess it's good to have a process, right?
To have a real system in place to narrow ideas down.
So we cast a wide net in the beginning. And Michelle, you were saying that you're going through this now, right?
So I don't know if you have any tips on what you've been doing to kind of funnel it down into a few ideas.
Well, yeah, I mean, for me, I have many different interests.
Also, I mean, obviously, English being like the primary interest and, you know, trying to figure out, OK, how do I. fit this into my life?
What do I have to give to the industry? And what are the many different things you can do?
So you research everything, right? So you want to be specific, but in order to be specific, you need to find out what is it that you want.
So you might want to even like, for example, Google Drive is fantastic, right?
Shout out to Google Drive. Shout out to Google Drive.
So for storing your files, you mean? Right.
Yeah. I just mean like make a little make a little folder for yourself that says, you know, research, research, maybe pick three different things that you're interested in and just look at as much information as possible.
Right. And then you can find out, you know, like.
Maybe like, what's like the outlook for this career?
Like, what's like the career path? How do you achieve it?
What kind of money can you make? Different things like that.
How hard is it to get a job? And so once you research all of that, then you can choose, okay, you know what?
I'm going to focus on this one. And then you can be more specific.
But Lindsay said something really great earlier about... it kind of being like a funnel, right?
So you start out big and you get smaller and smaller and smaller or like a pyramid, right?
So you can start out really general and get more and more specific, but it's important to eventually get specific in order to excel, in my opinion.
Yeah, and we call that narrowing it down, right?
We cast a wide net in the beginning and then at some point we have to narrow it down based on our interests, based on where we live, based on how much money we need to make, that sort of thing.
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And then we have a third tip. So, Lindsay, you want to take it away?
Sure. I just think it's really important to surround yourself with a supportive community and not just anyone, but people who are really intentional about their career choice, right?
So, there's so many people out there in the world who have founded a certain job and we're not judging here, right?
Sometimes money is a big issue and we just have to do what we have to do.
But if we have an option to take some choices, make some choices... then it's good to be around other people who also want to make more intentional choices.
So having, you know, being a part of a meetup group that meets every month to discuss.
Actually, this past week, I went to a meetup that was a meetup for entrepreneurs and change makers, I guess, in the community.
And we talked about the change we want to make in the world through our work and like what we can give to the world and what we need from the world.
All these interesting questions. And these people were so intentional about what they're doing in the world.
That sounds really inspiring. Yeah, it was really cool.
It was really cool. So I think just being a part of a community like that could really help to make sure that we become somebody, but the right somebody.
Right, right. Yeah. You can say like a community, you can say like like-minded people, right?
People have like the same ideals, the same values as you when it comes to a certain part of your life.
Yeah, that's a good phrase. Like-minded people.
I like it. So anyway, so these are some really great tips.
So just I just want to read the quote one more time.
Please do. So we have from again, this is from the actress.
I believe she's a comedian as well. Lily Tomlin.
I always wanted to be someone, somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific, okay?
We talked about what does it mean to be somebody, to be special, to be famous.
What does it mean to be specific? And things that you can do specifically for your career to help reach your goals, to know what are your goals, right?
And the three tips we gave, Lindsay, were...
Yeah. So work with a coach, narrow down your choices with a kind of a system and get a community around you of people who are genuinely inspired about this choice that they're going to make.
Right, Michelle, because we spend so much of our time at work.
I mean, how many hours a week are we working?
And if we're not doing something that truly kind of speaks to us, then we might be spending a lot of time in a place where we're not happy.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So and we want to be happy.
So let's go for it. I hope you guys are inspired by this episode.
I hope you learned some good tips. Absolutely.
So yeah, so thank you so much for listening.
Please come and leave us a comment. Yeah, come back to allearsenglish.com slash 270 and let us know what you're doing in your career.
Are you being, are you somebody in your life?
And are you specific enough in your choice?
Yeah. And maybe you can give our listeners, everybody else, some more tips if you have some.
Yeah. So we look forward to hearing from you.
And thank you so much for listening. Yes.
You guys there. Thanks, Michelle. Thanks, Lindsay.
Have a good one. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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