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8 TED talk tips to inspire your career goals

Whether you want to be an engineer or an artist, a social worker or an astronomer, there’s an inspirational TED talk out there that can help you get there.

From finding your dream job to nailing your soft skills, here are 8 talks with some clever and surprising career tips.

1. Find *your* creative genius

Elizabeth Gilbert (she’s the fantastic author of Eat Pray Love) believes everyone has a creative genius – no matter what their career goals are. She explains how to tap into it.

'Embrace failure, make stress your friend and go adventuring! 8 surprising career tips from inspiring TED talks'

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2. View failure as a lesson

Sarah Lewis takes some lessons from her job as an art historian to see what we can learn from failures and ‘near-wins’. 

3. Learn how to *really* listen

Boost your active listening skills by checking out this talk from sound expert Julian Treasure. It’s all about how we can properly tune into the world around us – which is a really important soft skill.

4. Don’t be afraid to try

Lucie Fink, who is a video artist and host of the hit YouTube series Living with Lucie, talks about the importance of trying something new even when it’s risky or scary.  

5. Find a job you love

That advice is easier said than done, so get some top tips from Scott Dinsmore. He quit a job he hated to pursue a career that was meaningful and rewarding.

6. Go on an adventure!

Entrepreneur Tyler Tervooren believes that travel and adventure has loads of benefits – including for our work and careers… (and luckily you don’t have to end up in  Russian jail, like he did!)

7. Grit will get you there

Angela Lee Duckworth quit her high-powered job in consulting to teach maths. She learned about the power of “grit” and perseverance.

8. Make stress your friend

Stress is something that affects us all at work and school. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal used to advise people about all the different negative effects of stress – then she changed her mind. In this surprising talk, she explains how you can turn stress into a positive and make it work for you.