Too many people, young and older, let their career and their lifestyle happen to them, rather than proactively making things happen based on their personal passions, skills, and interests. Others make decisions based on someone else’s interests, such as the father who wants his son to take over the family business, or dreams openly of having a doctor in the family. Neither of these approaches is likely to lead to a satisfying career or personal happiness for you.

These days, with the instant access to information and experts in every field around the world, and the wealth of personal assessment tools available on the Internet, there is no excuse for not exploring and evaluating the alternatives before you make a step forward. A very credible starting point is the classic book “Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success” by Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm.

Among other things, he outlines some of the popular assessment tools that I also often recommend as a mentor to entrepreneurs, including the following:

1. MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Myers Briggs is one of the most widely used and recognized career assessments in existence, and does an excellent job of identifying your personality type so you can connect it to the right career and lifestyle. It can also help you better relate to others and become more self-aware.

2. Gallup's Clifton Strength Finder. The focus of this tool is to help you discover your top five strengths and learn how you can use them to excel and perform at a higher level. The creator, Dr. Donald O. Clifton, is widely recognized as the Father of Strengths-Based Psychology, and has helped millions of people around the world discover their strengths.

3. Marcus Buckingham StandOut Assessment. This one builds on the positive premise that the most effective method for improving people is to build on their strengths, rather than correcting their weaknesses. It’s the one to use if you have tried other assessments that claim to tell you who you are, but don't tell you what you can do with that information.

4. Career Key. This one helps you identify careers and even college majors that match your set of interests, traits, skills, and abilities. It was developed by Lawrence K. Jones, a professor Emeritus in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, who specializes in the areas of school counseling and career counseling and development.

5. MAPP™ Career Assessment. The MAPP career assessment is perfect for students, graduates and working adults. You'll get a wealth of information to help find the right career that matches your unique assessment profile. The MAPP career test was one of the first comprehensive career tests online for consumers, with over 8 million customers.

6. Leadership Motivation Assessment. This one tells you how motivated you are to be a leader. After all, it takes hard work to become an effective business leader; and if you are not prepared to put this work in, or if, deep down, you're not sure whether you want to lead or not, you'll struggle to lead people effectively, and not be happy doing it as well.

If after taking one or more of these, you are still stuck on what domain you fit best into, whether you should be an entrepreneur, and how to get started, the following questions should help get those introspective juices flowing into action:

• When have you been the most committed and passionate toward something in your life?
• What talents do you use the most and what are your strengths?
• Which roles and activities did you like and dislike in the past?
• What aspect of those roles did you like the most and least?

After you get your own thoughts and assessment results together, it helps to get some feedback from people you respect, including parents, industry experts, and mentors. An outside perspective can be incredibly valuable as well, and help you narrow down what may seem like a long list, and relate that to the real world. Something you feel passionate about that doesn’t put food on the table, for example, may not be sustainable.

But the time to start is now. The most important point is to plot your own path, rather than be a victim of unpredictable circumstances and someone else’s whims. Don’t let other people be winners at your expense.

Marty Zwilling