After you have clearly defined your values, then take a look at those first two variables identified in the International Handbook of Career Guidance:  ability and interest.  Many entrepreneurs are jacks of all trades, but masters of none.  Using the following exercise can help you narrow down your ideas into those that are most likely to make you happy while you are working. 

Divide a piece of paper into four columns, with the headings:  History, Enjoyment, Skills, and Do or Die. 

Use the four columns to answer the following four questions:

1.  What jobs have you done in the past?  Be creative here:  if you ever sold band candy, you have done door-to-door sales.  If you helped your mother clean house, you have done janitorial work.  If you have changed even one diaper, you have some experience in child care.  If a job included more than one task, list each task separately.  No task is too small to be listed.  For example, housekeeping work may have included washing windows, washing dishes, vacuuming, dusting, and doing laundry.  All are different skill sets. 

2.  What tasks bring you the most enjoyment?  Music?  Driving?  Drinking?  These may or may not have any relationship to the job tasks you listed above.  Make the list as complete as you can.

3.  What skills do you have?  What are you good at?  Everyone has at least one thing, even if no one has ever told you that before.  Make a complete list of everything you feel you do well.  What are some things you have done that made you feel proud?  This question is extremely important, so make sure you spend the proper time considering your answer.

For example, I dearly love to sew, but most of the garments I create would fit either a resident of Munchkinland or an NBA player - no one in between. My clientele would be rather limited if I chose this as a career.  Therefore, sewing might be included on my "Enjoyment" list in column two, but not on my "Skills" list in column three.

4.  What things do you feel you must do or you will die?  For some people, if they were never able to play a guitar again, they would not survive.  This is more than the "enjoyable" things you listed in number 2.  Think in terms of if you were in an accident & lost the ability to do something, which thing if lost, would make you the saddest?

Now look at your four columns.  Are there any items in common?  If not, try the exercise again and spend some more time thinking about each list.  Don't just rush through - make your lists more complete, then look for overlaps.

Ideally, you will have one or two things that are on all four of your lists, and this is where you should concentrate your efforts.  If there is nothing on all four, look for something on three of the lists, then two.  If there are no similarities at all between any of the lists (which is very rare), you should focus your efforts on those items listed in the fourth column (do or die).

After you have narrowed down your lists to one or two things you want to pursue, think about the type of lifestyle you would likely have if you were to enter that field.  For example, if your lists indicate that you ought to be a church organist, you know that you will have to give up your Sunday mornings, and possibly Wednesday nights for services.  You will need to spend several hours each day practicing, and you will have choir rehearsal at least one evening a week.  You will also have to work on the major religious holidays and be available on short notice for funerals.  You will likely be hired for weddings and christenings.  You can plan on not making very much money.  If all of those parameters fit within the values you outlined at the beginning, you may have found a winner!