World Class Hugs

By Rachel Puryear

Welcome to Part 3 of a series of 5 on Empaths and Finances! This post will cover how empaths can discover and develop career paths which are both personally satisfying, and provide the standard of living we want.

The introductory post to this series gave an overview, and can be reread here. Part 1 of the series, about how empaths can shift their mindset around money to attract abundance and wealth energy, can be read here. Part 2 of the series, about how empaths can build better boundaries with others around money, can be read here.

You Don’t Have to Go Hungry to Enjoy Your Career:

Many people have a sense that we all must choose between an life doing what we love and find fulfilling, but where we are impoverished; versus being comfortable and prosperous, but enduring a soul-crushing job.

Certainly, there are people who fit into each of these scenarios. However, these do not have to be your only two options. You can be happy and do work you enjoy, while also making a decent living.

If You Want to Be a Therapist or a Caregiver, That’s Fabulous – but There’s a Lot More Out There for Empaths:

The stereotypical careers for empaths are occupations like therapists, caregivers, and other “caring professions”. Certainly, these stereotypes are rooted in a lot of truth, as the skill set they require matches well with the natural strengths and capabilities of empaths.

However, there are a lot of choices out there for us. Empaths are capable of doing a wide and diverse variety of careers, doing them well, and enjoying them. I don’t think there’s a field that could not use our abilities and perspectives, either.

Popular Careers for Empaths, and Careers Well Matched to Our Strengths:

General Factors to Consider in a Career:

We tend to work hard and diligently while we’re on a task or a job. That said, we also need our down time, and time to enjoy life.

We typically have the compassion and the caring nature needed to thrive in the helping professions. At the same time, we need to draw boundaries – including emotionally, physically, time wise – to avoid burnout, and to maximize the quality of our work.

We often like quiet, low-key work environments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be that way all the time – especially for HSS/HSP (adventurous empath) folks.

While we do tend to be cooperative and helpful to colleagues and clientele; we are not good at blind obedience, being fake to impress others, or adhering to rigid rules and schedules. We tend to thrive in environments where we have opportunities to be creative, where we can express new ideas without penalty; and where we can exercise some degree of flexibility and discretion around rules and procedures, as well as our schedules.

Empaths Can Make Great Entrepreneurs:

Being self-employed can offer a lot to empaths – with the caveat that any entrepreneur must be able to manage the more difficult aspects of working for themselves.

Working for ourselves offers us the ability to pick and choose who we work with, and choose working hours we like; is very beneficial and appealing to us. So is doing work we enjoy and find fulfilling.

At the same time, self-employment also carries its challenges. However, we are as equipped to handle these challenges as anyone else.

Self-employment requires us to network and market ourselves – which most of us find intimidating, at least initially. However, contrary to popular self-perception, most of us are actually much better at promoting ourselves than we think!

Many people mistakenly think that promoting oneself is all about being an egomaniac, and and telling everyone how great you are at every opportunity. That’s not true – most people find that pushy-salesperson behavior obnoxious.

Empaths, however, have a natural advantage in marketing ourselves. We are sincere, and we listen to what other people want. That is excellent self-promotion, without even realizing it.

Recommended reading: Check out Ninja Selling, by Larry Kendall. You will never think the same way about sales again after reading this. In short, it’s about attracting clients by listening to them and solving their problems, rather than chasing people and using aggressive tactics. The book is geared towards real estate agents, but the principles in it can be applied to any field.

A Non-Exhaustive List of Suggested Careers for Empaths:

This list is, of course non-exhaustive, but is simply meant to give you suggestions, rather than limit your possibilities. Some of these will overlap, some might necessitate self-employment. How much income people make doing any kind of work will vary based on a lot of factors. Here is a partial list of careers that many empaths find both fulfilling and rewarding:

1. Writing professions – copywriters, editors, bloggers, ghostwriters, content creators, technical writers, authors.
2. Creative professions – artists, performers, writers, web and graphic designers.
3. Outdoor professions – park rangers, landscapers, gardeners. Note: Modern gardening and landscaping services tend to use lawn care equipment that pollutes the air, creates a major source of carbon emissions, and is very noisy; with gas-powered leaf blowers being a terrible culprit. If you have green thumbs and are interested in a gardening career; offering environmentally friendly and quiet gardening and landscaping services, including the use of electric leaf blowers instead of gas-powered ones; could offer consumers a great alternative. Your business can stand out amongst the competition by offering services that are much healthier for neighborhoods, and for the planet.
4. Helping professions – health care services, mental health, physical therapists, social workers, nonprofit workers, coaches, caregivers, animal care providers, teachers.
5. Spiritual professions – clergy and ministers, witchcraft/wizardry, although the specifics of this will of course vary depending upon your beliefs and practices.

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Thank you, dear readers, for reading, following, and sharing. Here’s to your finding and developing a career path which is personally and financially rewarding, and allows you to make the best of your amazing gifts. If you enjoyed this content and want to see more of it, please hit “like” and subscribe, if you do not do so already.