Fortunately, I am lucky enough to work for a company and have a job in which that is not the case, but I do realize that my ultimate life goal and passion will not be fulfilled if I only do my current work for the rest of my life. We are all intrinsically built to be successful at something, and for those who are working a current profession in which you are not happy, you should look at what you can do to change your current situation to create the life in which you desire. There are basically two ways to go about doing this: 1. You can look for a new profession to find something that gives you more excitement and enjoyment in life or 2. You can look at starting your own business to do the work that naturally inspires the best out of you. Both of the choices have the same set of self-inspecting questions that must be answered first for you to move forward with either, however. These questions are:
What are your passions?
This is often the best place to start. While doing an assessment of yourself, it often best to start with what things, when you think about them in relation to your future or just activities that are coming down the road, truly excite you. This could be something that seems semi-trivial, such as planning a party for a friend, working out with a buddy, or giving advice to a youth who is struggling in school and/or life. It doesn't matter. Whatever it is that truly excites you when you think about doing it and when you are in the midst of doing it, is something to consider to make a future profession. Bill Gates loved to program and could do it for hours on hours without a break. Jillian Michaels (America's Biggest Loser Trainer) tried many different jobs and failed before she realized she was absolutely in love with helping people transform their lives through a healthier lifestyle. Both of these individuals took something that others were also doing, and perhaps had the same feelings of passion for it, and used it to make their lives super successful by taking it to the next level.
What are your talents?
The first step of identifying your passions is relatively easy, but it is this second step that requires you to think a little and be very honest with yourself in relation to what your passions are and your ability to execute on them to create a life of purpose. If you love helping people improve their lives through fitness and healthy eating, but you don't model the lifestyle that you are encouraging others to live, then your overall ability to be successful will be decreased based on your lack of talent of discipline to do what you are encouraging others to do. Talents are the skills at which we are very adept and allow us to be successful at our endeavors. Some people have natural talents that are 100 percent in line with their passions and goals and allow them to be super successful at an early stage in their lives. Those are the few "chosen ones," if you will, who seem to live a life of success from day one. The rest of the world (and majority of the other also super successful people in the world) had to identify their current talents, how they matched up with the talents needed to be successful at their passion, and, if they were lacking, develop a plan to work hard on becoming proficient enough at that talent to be successful in their passionate endeavor. This is the step that many people have trouble with because nothing that is worth anything is going to be easy. There will be a talent that you may currently possess that needs to be developed to a greater level for you to be in a position to make it your life's work, and you have to be honest with yourself that you are willing to put in the hard work and effort to develop it. If someone loves playing basketball but doesn't have the self discipline to practice consistently even when he or she doesn't feel like it, the chances of them making it to the professional leagues are not good. If someone has a passion for helping others through the application of medicine and health education, but they don't have the wherewithal to consistently study to increase their knowledge base and level of overall aptitude in this area, they cannot think that they will reach the level of success needed to make this their life's work. Everything worth something requires work and effort and creating the job of your dreams is no different.
Where can you start today?
After doing the initial first steps, the biggest mistake I think people make is they figure everything has to be perfect for them to be able to move forward with any type of plan to begin making this their life's work. That is not the case at all. First of all, things will NEVER be perfect. There will always be an obstacle that will make things so much easier if it was removed or something that you feel you need to do first before moving forward with your desire. Second, however, there are so many small things you can do to get you started on this path. It can be something as simple as beginning a blog like this one if you desire to be a writer one day to consistently work on your penmanship ability. It could be beginning to digest everything you can on natural hair care products and healing remedies if you desire to start your own company selling this one day. There are so many small things that you can do that will begin to put you on the path to achieving your success and ultimate life purpose, and those who start with these small things TODAY will separate themselves from the masses who always want to start them tomorrow.
Work is called work for a reason. It is not always easy and may not be something that we exactly love to do all the time. However, this is not a call to quit your job just because you had a bad day at the office. This happens to all of us and is the nature of life and the work world. This is a call, however, to assess how happy you are in your current position and, if you are not happy, begin to put a strategy together of how you can create an overall more meaningful and happy life by working towards doing something that is more natural and impacting to the person whom you are at your core. This type of work will always make it easy to jump out of bed without even thinking about hitting the snooze button. I can't say it won't make you want to get a little more "snuggle time," however.
Ken Middleton is an Account Executive at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
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