The Career Lover Series is inspired by people going through the motions at their work. They have no fire, no passion. They just show up, put in their time, and go home.
More than half of our lifetime is spent at work. It’s such a shame. What a waste of life…
We pursue a job for various reasons. More often than not, money is one primary consideration; likewise for me. I’ll be kidding if I say just go out there and pursue a job that you love, regardless of how little it pays… no, that doesn’t work.
So fine, money is important, I understand.
But still, I want to argue that money is not the sole consideration. Each day, I continue to hear stories of people whose are not happy because they see their job as that - simply a job. As such, I continue to advocate that we should pursue our passions.
JUST WHAT THE HELL DO I LOVE?
Having said that, I know that it’s not easy to find your passion. Although I preach about this all the time, my passion hasn’t always been that clear to me. When I was younger, I thought that I understood myself very well. It’s logical, isn’t it? If I don’t know myself, who will? Yet, over the years, I’ve learned that it’s really not easy to understand oneself:
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When I signed up for computer studies, I thought that I loved computing. Wrong. Turned out that I love continuous learning.
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After school, I joined the Army, I thought I loved to be a soldier. Wrong again. I actually love leadership.
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Tired of the Army, I left and joined the corporate world. I thought that I wanted to be a business leader. Yet, I’m wrong again. I simply wanted more freedom to manage my time.
On hindsight, I didn’t understand what I really love.
As such, I can really understand when some people give me a puzzled look when I tell them to do what they love. They probably don’t have a clue what it is they truly love! It’s not easy to know what you want - the things that you REALLY want in a job.
If you don’t know what it is that you truly love, don’t fret. You’re not alone, and definitely not the minority. It takes a little trial and error, a little fine-tuning to nail down that dream job.
THE CAREER LOVER QUESTIONNAIRE
To help you along, I have included a Career Lover Questionnaire at the end of this article. It includes a list of questions and exercises that you can use to gain better understanding of your passions and talents. It’s really quite a simple questionnaire. Essentially, the aim is to help you know yourself better. To be a Career Lover, you only need one thing - clarity. Great clarity about your passions and talents. Once you have clarity, the rest will fall in place.
CLUES TO YOUR PASSION - YOUR DREAM LIFESTYLE
The first step is to list down what you really want. To do this, take a pen and paper and list down the 15 (or more) things that you enjoy doing. Imagine that you have all the money and resources in the world and you can do whatever you want to do: what are the things that you would enjoy doing everyday? Here are some additional pointers to help you along:
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Meaningful Work - think of work which you feel are really meaningful; things that make you feel like you’re a contributor and you’re doing that little bit to help someone or make something better. One tenet of being a Career Lover is to do meaningful work, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be a volunteer or philanthropist to do meaningful work. It can be meaningful in different ways - a colleague of mine finds it meaningful to grow our existing business and improving it, he gets quite excited talking about it. I find it meaningful to provide value to my clients by helping them to achieve their objectives and reduce outsourcing frustrations. I also derive a lot of satisfaction from readers who walks away with a greater perspective about their life through my ramblings on this blog.
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Being In the “Zone” - recall those times when you enjoyed doing something and you totally lose track of the time. It’s sort of like you’re in the “zone”. By the time you realized it, time had just flashed by. “Wow!, it’s been 3 hours already?!” That’s a big clue that you really enjoy what you’re doing.
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Getting Excited And Emotional - think of those things or issues that you get really excited or emotional about. Your emotions well up and you (unknowingly) get excited just thinking or talking about it. For me, I know I love dealing with leadership issues because whenever I watch movies like A Few Good Men and Brave Heart, the integrity and strength of the key characters always get my hair standing. I felt the impulse to stand up and shout “Yes, that’s the man that I want to be!” After many years with me, my wife also realize that whenever I talked about stories of men who display great leadership, my tone gets louder, my pitch turns higher and my pace increases; all naturally, without me realizing it. I’m really quite passionate about this.
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A Perfect Day - what would a perfect day be like for you? What would you be doing? Who would you be meeting? What kind of conversations would you be having? What type of people would you be meeting? I realized I love the freedom to manage my time and to learn, when I was on leave one day and sat at a cafe outside Borders to read and write. It was such an uplifting feeling. Later I realized that was my idea of a perfect day - the freedom to be at where I want to be, and being close to sources of knowledge and learning; to read and to express myself in writing. If given a chance, I can bury myself in a bookstore for days without coming out.
THE PERSON MOST LIKELY TO SABOTAGE YOUR PASSIONS - YOU
Surprised? There’s some common ways that your limiting beliefs can sabotage yourself. In defining your dream lifestyle, be mindful of these pitfalls:
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Focusing On What You Don’t Want - whenever a friend ask me if they should leave a job for another opportunity, my advice is always to focus on the pull factors, not the push factors. Some people leave a job because they hate it; so they grab any opportunities to get out of the current ’shit-hole’. Sad thing is, without understanding what they truly want, they usually ended up jumping from one ’shit-hole’ into another.
Likewise, it’s the same for defining your dream job. You may have a slave-driving boss; as such, you desire a work-from-home career. You don’t want a boss. Let’s say you took the plunge, but later found out that you don’t enjoy the missing work/home boundaries. As such, after working from home for a few months, you gave up and got another office job. And this yo-yo syndrome goes on and on…
On deeper examinations, perhaps what you really wanted is a respectful boss or a career that allows work-life balance, not a career without a boss.
I hope you get the drift about clarity of what we want? By having clarity, it means drilling down to ‘why’ you are feeling in a certain way, without jumping straight into the most obvious way out.
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Worrying About “How” - one way we limit and sabotage ourselves is to worry too much about ‘how to achieve it?’ So you want to be a millionaire? You listed it down, then you worry about how you are ever going to earn that sort of money. So you strike that off the list. You play it safe by putting down an amount that you’re comfortable of achieving. Big mistake.
I’m sure you’ve heard of how Steve Jobs started Apple Inc. from his parents’ garage and grew that into a multi-billion company it is today. Now try to imagine you are in Steve’s shoes back in those garage days. How would the possibility of a multi-billion dollar company look? Does it look like a sure bet? Or highly impossible? Of course, on hindsight, history always make things look very clear and definite. It’s looking forward and creating the future filled with uncertainty that’s scary.
As you take actions towards your dreams, doors which you cannot foresee early on, will open up to provide the ‘how’. Just yesterday Darren Rowse stated that Wall Street Journal (WSJ) contacted him to do an article about making money through blogging. Darren Rowse is one of the top probloggers on professional blogging. I don’t know about you, but been contacted by WSJ is a big deal to me. I cannot imagine how they will ever be interested to talk to me about writing an article. But I guess it’s the same for Darren. When he first started blogging in 2002, the idea of interviews with WSJ would have been just as remote. My takeaway from this is: dare to dream big without being overly concerned about the ‘how’ . Doors will open up later as you take actions.
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Don’t Assume What You Love Is What Everyone Else Love - It Probably Isn’t. When I enjoyed the day at a cafe outside Borders, I didn’t think much of it. After all, everyone would enjoy a day off, sitting there reading and doing nothing much, isn’t it? However, after that day, whenever I had any time off, I would find myself going back there to relish the same feelings.
My true enlightenment came yesterday as I was writing this article. I asked my wife, “do you enjoy the freedom to sit at a cafe to read and write?”
She replied “yes, that’s a nice break from the usual routine.”
I pursued further, “would you be happy to live your life doing that?”
“Of course not,” the reply came quickly.
Guess what? I will be happy to live my life doing that - sitting outside a bookstore to read, learn about the world and write about what I’ve learned. That’s my dream lifestyle. It isn’t for my wife, and now I’ve learned that it isn’t for many others. I guess the takeaway is: don’t dismiss common or mundane passions too early. Even if you think your passion is to be a couch potato, don’t dismiss it; write it down. Many people may also enjoy the same stuff, but not many will love it enough to make it their livelihood - the way that you do.
HOW DO I KNOW IF THIS IS JUST A PASSING FAD?
As you list down your 15 passions, perhaps one of the questions you may have is: ‘How Do I Know If This Is Something I Truly Love, Or It’s Just Some Passing Fad?’
This is a valid question. Maybe you’ve ever picked up a new hobby because it was a hot topic or maybe it simply looked interesting then. You’d enjoyed and liked it for a while, but after some time, the ‘passion’ simply died off. It happened to me too.
To mitigate this, I suggest that you rank your passions and identify the top 5:
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Take the passion at the top of your list, and compare it to the next on the list.
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Between the two, choose one. Now, you have to be very honest here, you can only choose one of the two.
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Take the one that you chose and compare it with the rest of your passions, one by one, through the whole list.
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By the end of your first pass through the list, you will have your top passion - the one that is more important than any other passions on the list. Mark it as No. 1 and set that aside.
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Repeat the process with other passions on the list until you have your No. 2 to No. 5 passions.
In ranking your passions, you’ll achieve 2 things:
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The process makes you question your deepest desires and why each passion is important to you. It helps you gain clarity.
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The ranking also filters out passions that are likely to be passing fad. Because by comparison, only those passions that you are very certain about will get to the top 5.
In completing this ranking exercise, you will have your top 5 passions - things that you are truly passionate about. This is the 1st dimension of being a Career Lover.
WHERE ALL ELSE FAILS, FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Defining your passions is about finding your love. Your love for work and life.
When doing the Dream Lifestyle Exercise, find a quiet corner where you will not be disturbed and go through the exercise yourself. As with all matters of the heart, only you know the passions and dream lifestyle that you love. No one else can do that for you.
Remember, there is no right or wrong answer. Self-understanding comes in layers. The important thing now is to write down your passions as you currently feel them. Have that first layer peeled off first. Over time, with new life experiences and frequent reviews, you will gain greater clarity about your passions. It’s like peeling off layers of onion skin, one at a time, getting more clarity and understanding each time you do it.
THE TALENT DIMENSION - PLAYING TO WIN
The 2nd dimension of a Career Lover is Talents.
Books advocating passion often focus exclusively on loving what you do. I’d started off that way, but I’ve discovered that there’s a gap in this approach. The reason is simple: how long can you love something if you constantly lose at it?
Even if you have deep passion for something, you need to excel at it for it to be sustainable. By adding talents to the equation, we’ve also added a certain practicality element to it. Sure, you may love cooking; but if you can’t cook good food that people love, then the motivation to cook will not last very long, will it?
A Career Lover must love his work, and winning at it helps him/her to love it even more. By winning, I don’t mean that you beat must everybody else, but you must:
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Do well at it to be recognized as one of the experts in your field.
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Feel that your work is meaningful by contributing your talents to benefit other people.
Chances are, if you don’t fulfill the above criteria, you won’t enjoy the work a Career Lover is suppose to. I hope the following real life example shows you why.
HOW EX-KPMG’S CEO ALIGNED HIS PASSIONS AND TALENTS
When he was young, ex-KPMG CEO, Eugene O’Kelly loved baseball. He aspired to be a great baseball player. Due to his passion, he spent a lot of time practicing. He did well at first; but during high school, it become obvious he lacked the talents to make it to the national level. He was simply not talented in baseball.
On his mother’s advice, he gave baseball up and pursued his other passion - accounting and business.
The rest is history. This pivotal decision allowed Eugene to become one of American Big Four’s CEO. If he had stayed with his first passion on baseball, he would had probably sucked at it, led a mediocre life and missed his greatest destiny.
WHY IT’S SO HARD TO IDENTIFY YOUR OWN TALENTS?
Now that you see how important talent is to being a Career Lover, let’s understand Talents a little better. In the context of a Career Lover, talent means:
Strengths that allowed you to perform consistently well.
The keyword here is consistently. The results must be reproducible. It must not be dependent on luck.
Talents includes:
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Innate potentials/aptitude.
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Character/personality traits.
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Past experiences/knowledge/skills.
Again, knowing your talents requires that you know yourself. However, unlike your passions, talents are harder to identify on your own. Why? Because your talents are your key strengths which you do well effortlessly, and you’ll often take them for granted. Because you do them so effortlessly, there’s an inclination to think that everyone else does it as easily too.
The fact is that your talents are unique and others cannot duplicate them easily. Chances are, they’ll just think “wow, how did he/she do that so easily?”
Have you ever wondered:
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How a good sales person can walk into a social gathering and always know how to start and carry a conversation?
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How a great lawyer can engage in a debate and know what to say, argue and counter the opposition’s points; all impromptu?
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How a great writer can communicate words with great feelings, impact and make you want to turn page after page?
Each of these jobs requires a certain set of attributes to be successful at. These people have talents that they have internalized and when the situations arise, they just draw on their talents and perform accordingly. They make it seemed so easy, while others just stared on in awe.
Likewise, you have your talents - which allowed you to perform consistently well. And you’ll need some help to identify them.
DISCOVER YOUR TALENTS - THE GUIDING HAND EXERCISE
I have included in the questionnaire the Guiding Hand Exercise to help you identify your talents. As opposed to passions, your talents are externally displayed. Close friends and work associates are required to help you identify them. Here’s some clues to help you identify your talents:
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Past situations when you were successful.
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Wins in past competitions.
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Things that you learned quickly and/or easily.
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Consistent display of character traits.
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Attributes that lead to consistent display of good work performance.
I learned the Guiding Hand Exercise when I was on leadership training in the Army, which I’m sharing today. To do this exercise:
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Go through the questions in the Guiding Hand Exercise yourself. The first step is to list down your strengths AS YOU SEE YOURSELF.
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Next, ask 3 or more friends to go through the exercise. Ask them to list down the 5 STRENGTHS THEY SEE IN YOU. The more friends you get to help, the more accurate the results will be. But be mindful to ask friends or family members who have working experiences with you i.e. asking an acquaintance who has never worked with you before is not going to be very helpful.
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Ask them to elaborate on each strength listed, citing past situations or examples where you displayed those strengths.
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To know your talents, tally up the scores for the strengths listed by all your friends. It is likely that some strengths will be mentioned more than once. Obviously, the more ‘votes’ a particular strength has, the more distinct that strength is.
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Rank your strengths according to the number of votes. Starting from the one with the most votes at the top. You now have your Talents List.
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Lastly, compare your Talents List against your own list of strengths you did in Step 1. This is how much you understand your own talents. The lesser the difference between your Talents List and your own list of perceived strength, the better you know yourself.
BECOMING A CAREER LOVER - MATCHING PASSIONS AND TALENTS
By now, I hope you’ve realized that Talents and Passions are two mutually reinforcing dimensions:
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With passion matching relevant talents, you’ll put in more time doing and practicing, until you eventually become a master of your chosen field.
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With talents matching relevant passions, you’ll see tangible results from your efforts. It’s easier to see how your contributions make a difference and develop a sense of purpose.
Having one without the other, is… well, just incomplete.
BECOMING A CAREER LOVER IS LIKE FALLING IN LOVE - KEEP TRYING UNTIL YOU FIND IT
Let’s say you’ve completed the questionnaire and now you have your lists of passions and talents. How do you know if they are absolutely correct? You don’t.
Becoming a Career Lover is like falling in love. You go on a date, check out the other party, experience and learn from it. The experience will give you more clarity about what you’re looking for in a partner. For some people, they get lucky and find their ideal partner in one date. For others, it’ll take many, many dates to find the right partner.
It’s not about being absolutely right. It’s about gaining clarity with each new experience.
It’s the same being a Career Lover. You write down your idea of a Career Lover now, and experience it in your life. 6 months later, with new experiences and insights, come back to review what you have written down. Adjust, fine-tune your definitions of a Career Lover and live your life in accordance with it.
With that, I hope this exercise and guide has provided you with greater insights about being a Career Lover. Given the right approach, it’s not that elusive after all.
In the next 2 parts of the Career Lover Series, I will focus on the Practicality dimension of being a Career Lover - how do you make a living out of your passions and talents? So stay tuned.
Download The Career Lover Questionnaire
(Photos by phauly, puja and DIDEO)
Fantastic article.
“How a great writer can communicate words with great feelings, impact and make you want to turn page after page?”
You have that talent in a big way! I normally replace reading for scanning, but I read every single word of that.
Hi Matt,
thanks for this great compliment. It’s really flattering. I appreciate it
Great article, Lawrence! You really give your readers a lot to chew on with this one!
You know, I always say it’s not about what we do - it’s about the energetic quality that we express while we do what we do.
For me, the big, big thing I must express is the energy of empowerment (yes, there’s a reason behind the name of my business!). I love to learn because it empowers me. I want to know how to do everything myself because tools are empowering. I love to teach because I love to empower others. I generally learn how to do something, and then turn around and teach it to pass those tools along. I love doing readings for others, but my goal is really to put people in a position where they really don’t need me to do the work for them anymore. So I do intuitive development coaching, and now I also am teaching people how to do intuitive work for others. And along the way, I’m always questing for where we are at our most powerful …
I think we all have an underlying “theme song.” It can be expressed in a million different ways. We just have to, as you say, line it up with our talents and the practical aspect, and we’re good to go!
Great work!
Blessings,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
You’re one fortunate lady. I have received multiple feedbacks for this article, and many raised concerns about the practicality of what I’m saying here. As such, it confirms my observation: not many people love their job.
You’re one of the few.
It’s a great challenge for everyone, myself including to do it. Like you, I know the difference it can make and I hope the same for everyone.
So let’s see how we can line the talent and practical aspects up in the next 2 part of this series
This includes many useful points, Lawrence. I think many people even forget how important loving a career can be. Most of us spend lots of time at it, and it should be time that feels worth the while in the end. Nonetheless, so many folks seem to get trapped in a loveless career, despite maybe having lots of experience, education, or capabilities. Maybe they just never looked at things the way that you do in this piece. Wouldn’t it be great if every high school student could read your piece? That’s a great time to start thinking about these issues.
Thanks, too, for your hard work on this one!
Hi Mike,
Making this a high school teaching subject? That’s greatly flattering thanks. I’m happy to teach, if they’re open to listen
This is an excellent article Lawrence. I’m glad to see this series continuing with fine articles… lots of great points that people should walk away with here.
I also like how you related your own personal experience about going from one career path to another to another. It’s very much like dating and trying to find your true love. I don’t think I ever heard that analogy before, but it’s quite apropos!
I don’t think you covered it yet, but to extend the dating analogy, let me give my take. I’ve been married happily for almost four years now, but at one point earlier, we were dating and broke up. We were both young and weren’t quite compatible the first time around, but after some years went by, we both grew and matured as individuals and then we surprisingly realized how much more compatible we were after we matured. That career that you love may not be mature yet, but if you think that it will be someday, stick with it and never let go!
Hi Al,
thanks for raising a very good point.
You know what, just yesterday, a friend of mine was going back to her old job. She moved out to do sales, but decided that sales is not for her and moved back.
You’re right and it’s same as what I’m saying, falling in love doesn’t mean you can’t go back to something you’d tried before, right?
Sometimes, you’ll learned that what you’ve had is better because you’ve the chances to try something else…
(of course, I’m not saying we should be fickle-minded about partners)
Wow Lawrence, this is a comprehensive article. I’m gonna have to bookmark and refer back to it.
I agree with the message complete. However, convincing people of this into massive action is another challenge. Keep up the great writing.
Hi Tina,
Yes, indeed the challenge is convincing people into massive action. I’m gonna try at it in the next part of this series. So… let’s see how that goes.
[…] III - Discover Your Passion - Life Is Too Short For The Wrong Job Read MoreA Long Long Road In 2008Why It’s Dangerous Not To Do What You Love (Career Lover […]
Lawrence,
Great work again! I agree that one of the most difficult aspects of the process is figuring out what you could really do everyday in order to be fulfilled and what is just something you enjoy doing in your free time. Like your wife who would love sitting outside Borders in her free time, but wouldn’t be fulfilled doing it day in and day out.
One thing I would like you to address is what one should do in the meantime, the time from when a person recognizes that they are not doing what they love and the time when they finally get to that place where purpose, passion and occupation all meet. I believe that one of the most common mistakes one can make is taking the attitude of “just getting by until I can do what I want,” passing up hundreds of opportunities along the way deemed unworthy because they fall outside the passion zone.
I think people end up burning lots of bridges when they begin to slack off at their current job because its not what they really want to be doing instead of being excellent no matter where they find themselves. You were in the military like me, so I know that you have been given jobs or assignments that you think are pointless or unimportant. But, I’m sure you saw, like I have, that the people who took the pointless assignments and executed them well ended up finding themselves in a place where their dream assignments started coming their way. I realize this isn’t always the case, but seems to happen more often than not. All this to say, I think the biggest mistake a person can make when pursuing a career that lines up with their passion is to burn bridges along the way by choosing to give minimal effort in the jobs they deem unworthy. Interested to hear your thoughts.
Hi Cameron, thanks for these very valid points. I think you have asked some very good questions.
In my humble opinion, the mentality of “just getting by until I can do what I want” has nothing to do with passionate work. I think it has more to do with one’s attitude towards work.
There is no such thing as a perfect job. Ask a Career Lover, and there will be aspects of work that he/she dislikes. However, it’s the passion and meaning of it that makes these inconsequential or bearable. If a person waits for something interesting before they decide to put in that effort, then they’ll never perform well enough to be given the responsibility in the first place.
I love to write and share my ideas on this blog, but it’s not like I’m jumping with joy every time that I write.
There will be days when I am tied with up my day job and I have to write, even when I don’t feel like it. But the meaning of this work makes me go the extra mile to do it. You are a blogger yourself, so I think you’ll understand.
My two cents worth.
“When I signed up for computer studies, I thought that I loved computing. Wrong. Turned out that I love continuous learning.”
Wow. That’s me. I never thought about that. THANK YOU FOR THE INSIGHT!
Your articles always resonate strongly with me — it always seems you’re talking directly to me. Keep up the amazing job!
Hi Luciano,
it does seem like we have much in common.
Always glad to have you around.
I have been working since I was 18 years old not counting summer jobs for a few years before that. In the past I have never had a problem with work. I knew I was paid to perform my job so I did it as best I could. I have been repaid by numerous lay-offs. I was even in the Air Force and the career path I chose was converted top contract maintenance so I seperated and continued in that field and was again experienced a lay-off. The last job move I made I felt like I just wanted to lay down for a long time because I was emotionally unable to take the beating anymore. I took a job I did not intend to be long term and stayed there 9 months. The current job I am in was not too bad a position when I started except for the 12 hour shifts, which I had never done before. The last three years however have brought changes that have me nearly in tears and often fighting back vomiting when I think about having to go to that “Shit-hole”. They have made me a less productive worker for all their badgering. I have no idea now what my job is anymore because we are doing so many departments work and they are all priority.
On my time off I have been involved in church choir, and community choirs, even being part of a group that debuted a brand new musical piece. I also have been involved in delivering Mobile Meals twice a month for the last two years. I started the meals as a way to give to others. I think I have received more than I give by doing this. My wife and I are happier together, and I get a chance to actually smile by serving these wonderful people. Singing and a compassionate heart seem to be my talents and passion. I am currently just beginning to explore the possibility to get training in conducting a choir and maybe piano lessons to possibly take a church choir director position.
I have spent three years feverishly paying off bills and a very modest home to get to a position where I can live comfortably on a modest wage. I have never cared at all about climbing the ladder to the top. I tell those in a middle of the crossfire position where I work that I like all my crap coming at me from the same direction. I am ready to try something different. I am looking forward to the practicality part of your series to see if there are any more ideas for me to consider.
I had started this journey before and have been inspired to try to leave my job by some of the company literature (read propaganda) that tells me everyday to “make myself better everyday.” I just recently ran across your blog and I am inspired more.
Thank-you so much!
Kevin Whitson
Hi Kevin, thanks for sharing your story.
One thing which you have highlighted and I didn’t in this article, is that often, we are at the mercy of market forces. These are realities that even Career Lovers have to deal with. Career Lovers can also lose their jobs during recessions or bad markets.
There’s one differences though; if you love your work, it’s easier to take a beating and bounce back, simply because you love the work.
One fine example would be Steve Jobs; he was ousted from Apple when he was 30 by his Board (something he couldn’t control). It was a very public falling out. He was devastated. The only reason he could make a comeback was because he love what he do - technology. He came back not for the sake of making a comeback or getting back at those who ousted him. He came back simply to continue to do what he loves. That’s a very important but subtle difference that propelled him to his status today.
It seems to me you have discovered your passion in the choir. I’ll not be amazed if you make something great out of this in the future. Of course, the question is how do you bring bread to the table from this move into choir work?
Many successful Career Lovers started off from a hobby and monetizing the hobby into a income generating work. It’s a great place to start, and you may want to consider this. I will also talk about this strategy in the next article.
Hi Lawrence,
Have recently come across your site during a major period of career doubt and found your material to really useful and relevant. You think very clearly about these complex issues and have really insightful suggestions to offer.
Two comments, if I may:
I am one of those people with plenty of energy and interests that still doesn’t really know what I’m passionate about. I think some more layers needs to be peeled back. One tip I might have for others is to look at your web browsing activity, including history and bookmarks. It kind of gives a snapshot of where your wandering attention takes you in the course of a day. For me it’s chess, cricket, social networking, news and then arcane factoid sites like Neatorama. What does this say about me? Plenty, including that fact that I’m bored at work!
My other comment is that asking “What career or passion should I follow” is really a paraphrase of the question “Who am I?” That’s why its not simple and certainly not an emotionally neutral question for someone to answer.
Great site, Lawrence, looking forward to picking up some more victuals to aid and abet my journey!
Hi Dave,
great points. I agree. Finding one’s passion is not easy. I say it from my own experience. As much as I scream “love your job” so often, I struggle with the same issues, even now. Passionate work is really like a relationship with your love ones; it’s a constantly evolving relationship. It takes effort and fine-tuning…
I think it’s a great idea using your browsing history as a clue. I’ve told people a similar clue, look out for which section of the library or bookstore you’re naturally attracted to…
Great observation on your point of ‘who am I’. I fully agree. Meaningful work is truly subjective, depending on individuals. Your work does define who you are, as a person. So it makes even more sense to do meaningful work so that you are a meaningful person, isn’t it?
Hi Lawrence,
Great article you’ve got here. It gave me a lot of food for thought. I especially like the part about daring to dream big. I believe the actions that we take after deciding on a direction will open doors for us. I agree that sometimes we can be our greatest enemy in pursuing our dream lifestyle. Thanks.
Carlos
Hi Carlos,
You’re welcome. Feel free to share some thoughts after you are done thinking
Lawrence, I have another query that you might be able to comment on.
What advice do you have for those of us whose passions all fall outside the world of work? For example, I am in the “zone” when playing PC games, watching cricket, hiking in the mountains, playing with my son, traveling overseas etc. None of which sounds very useful when it comes to guiding my career choice. Perhaps, as I am beginning to suspect, my calling is towards multiple divergent careers.
Hi Dave,
good question, really. I have quite a bit to say about this, and I will answer your question in the next Which Way? post
Hi all, this is an awesome discussion!
To Cameron … you know, I think a lot of people think it’s either the job they have now, or the “ideal” job. But the thing is, we often have to take ten steps to get to that “ideal” job we love … not just one big one. In the meantime, to me, is about asking ourselves “What can I do TODAY to move myself towards the career I really want?” There’s always something we can do right now - even if it’s research, or networking, or getting more skills under our belt. So “the meantime” is an essential part of getting there!
To people trying to discover their passion … first of all, you won’t recognize what it is until you try it. Sometimes we try to choose our career like ordering off a menu in a restaurant. A dish may sound good, smell good, but we won’t really know if we like it until we actually eat it. So we have to experiment and walk a few different paths to find the one that sticks.
One question - let’s say you won the lottery. Money is no longer an object. After you’ve bought all your cool new stuff and moved to a big house and all that … what would you DO with your time? Take the answers you come up with and try a scaled-down version that’s attainable in “real life.”
The other question - what is the biggest gift anyone has ever given you? I mean, not a physical object, but something you’ve learned? Who has taught you something incredibly valuable, and what was the lesson or piece of advice? We tend to value what we are passionate about.
To Dave - All your various passions are really about “the zone,” aren’t they? What is it about those hobbies that puts you in the zone? The common thread? Is it total absorption? Being in a completely different environment? What is it that causes that “click” within you? What does it awaken inside you?
By the way - I firmly believe there’s ALWAYS a way to turn a passion into a profitable business! It may take time, but it can always be done. The first steps may not be as grandiose or appealing as the final vision, but I think technology has become so incredibly available to all of us that we are only limited by our imagination.
Lawrence, sorry for such a long comment! Didn’t mean to “blog hog.”
Blessings,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
No worries, your valuable sharing is always welcomed here
I really like your concept about the menu in the restaurant and trying things out. My recent discovery is that people fail to find their passion, because they don’t have the courage to try out different things.
Like what you said, just looking at the menu won’t tell you if the dish is good or not. You really have to take a risk, order the dish, eat it, in order to know. But if it’s a good dish, you’ll simply know the moment it’s in your mouth.
Others can describe to you how fantastic it is, but you’ll never know unless you’ve tried!
Amazing concept, Andrea. You have just added a very good analogy to my arsenal.
[…] gotten quite a bit of feedback from the last article on discovering your passion . One common feedback sounds like this “Hey, Lawrence, it’s all great, this passion […]
[…] my recent post “Discover Your Passion - Life Is Too Short For The Wrong Job“, I mentioned that activities that we enjoy, and being in the “zone” are clues to […]
Lawrence,
I’m new to your blog, and I’m really excited to have come across it. Until I changed my life to become a career exploration and transition coach, I spent many, many years trying to identify my own passions and to reach that source of inner purpose and motivation that would drive me in my work no matter what, that would give meaning to my work.
The trick here, as you rightly point out in this and other posts, is to see beyond the obvious. I am now coming to the conclusion that looking for a job that’s right for us is actually a bit of a red herring. (I have a couple of recent posts on my blog about this.) Most people, when the say they are searching for their right work, are really looking for their life’s purpose, whether they realize it or not. The right job will be the one that will allow them to express that purpose, and there can be many such jobs and many ways of doing so outside of our work environment.
For example, I now love what I do for a living, but when I first started out on my career path, which was a while ago and in a different country, there was no such thing as life coaching, and there isn’t still. If I stayed in that country, does it mean I wouldn’t have been able to fulfill my life’s purpose? Of course not. I simply would have found a different occupation - a different way of expressing this life purpose. What’s your purpose in life - that’s really the $64,000, or $64,000,000 - question.
Best regards,
Izabella Tabarovsky
www.ProjectCreativeVision.com
Hi Izabella,
Welcome
Glad to hear from you and I hope we’ll hear more of you in the future. It seems like this series is helping me to meet a lot more Career Lovers. This is really quite exciting for me.
I think you have brought up a very valid point that I may have fail to - the sense of purpose can be found in more than in career path. Indeed, there’s is more than one path to fulfillment. But the challenges is to discover what it is that is fulfilling to us.
Take care.
Thank you Lawrence. I, too, am excited to be a part of this conversation. There are a lot of career-related blogs and websites out there, but few, I find, that are really dedicated to exploring the issue of what truly makes for a meaningful and authentic career path. I think it’s time we all, as a society, moved beyond the conversation about interviewing tips and dressing for success and began talking about how we realize the amazing human potential that goes to waste in corporate offices across the nation.
Best wishes,
Izabella
I get this eNewsletter once a month from a marketing guru guy I quite respect. His lead story this month was titled the Story of the Little Tree. It tells how this little tree kept uprooting itself looking for optimum conditions to grow, but never settling anywhere. His parable closes with:
“Are you a little tree?
A tree that keeps uprooting itself doesn’t get a chance to grow. It stays confused and scattered. Stay where you are. Learn what you need to. And grow strong roots. That’s what will make you a big tree.
Move upward. Not sidewards.”
Its a great story but sometimes you do need to uproot. Sometimes you outgrow the role you’re playing and only a clean break can open you up to new possibilities. Knowing when to grow up or when to grow sideways is critical I guess.
Regards
Dave
Hi Dave,
thanks for sharing this wonderful story. I agree with the morale behind it - you’ll only grow if you stay and grow strong roots.
However, it’s also important to look at WHERE you stay to grow roots. Because if you stay at soil that’s unsuitable for you, you’ll never flourish as much as you potentially would. So stay, yes; but find the right place to stay.
On Work, Passion, and Life Purpose
I’ve been bedeviled recently by the question of passion and work. It began with this thread on Lawrence Cheok’s website, continued with a comment to this post here, and then spilled over into conversations with family and friends. Every day
You are your own worst enemy. I certainly do agree with that statement. I have been caught up with the ‘old school’ mentality of an employee for the longest time (I have just read your money mindset series).
Now that I’m starting my own business and doing something that…well, I don’t think I necessarily love what I do, but I’m very passionate about making a success of it (if that makes sense). I don’t know if I’ll ever really love my career, but I’ll never hate it. The thing is, my sense of accomplishment doesn’t come from my career. Instead it comes from how I am able to support my family and provide some financial stability for us.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but perhaps we have different values.
Thank you for this post Lawrence! I saw this just now, but it still rings true. Finding one’s passion is indeed tough, especially when you try to turn it into a money making career or business. It’s even more daunting nowadays, since the economy and times are hard.
It really takes confidence and courage to go out of your comfort zone and follow your passion. But then again, we won’t be able to make more or live more out of life if we just let our passions fizzle out. Better to try than regret not finding your passion later on.
P.S. For tips on how to do what you love and make more money in tough economic times, visit http://budurl.com/79e2.