Discover your passion

What makes you tick? What makes your creative juices flow and your adrenaline surge? Before you went to school to go study to get a job, what is it you really wanted to do? What is your passion? You need to discover your passion.

Take your mind back in time. Before your parents and committee of concerned family members and relatives tore your dreams to shreds, what it was. Sure, writing, painting, sculpture, singing, football, etc does not put food on the table (have you noticed football and singing have left the banned list?).

Life had a logical sequence: grow up, go to a good school, get a good well-paying job, meet a good homely girl/boy, fall in love, get married, buy/build a big home, raise kids, and put them through the same drill.

Add an MBA to your arsenal, climb the proverbial ladder, grow old gracefully, and hope you do not get downsized before you get to the top. Make it to the magical retirement age, grab a rocking chair, and wait for the pension check to come through the mail…

Reminds me of the story of Solomon Grundy in junior school:

Solomon Grundy
Born on Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married on Wednesday
Ill on Thursday
Worse on Friday
Died on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
This is the story of Solomon Grundy

The piece will get you thinking…

Imagine a perfect day…

THOUGHT-PROVOKERS

* What if none of your favorite skills and interests are in your current job description?
* What if your favorite things to do and the things in which you have the most interest are things you can only do at home?
* Or things you can only do if you had a completely different career?
* Hint! You may be in the wrong job. In the wrong career. In the wrong profession!
* Ask yourself how you got there?

Most of us got out of school and took the job offered. We said we’d stick with it for a few years, get the old college loans paid off, and then go do what we were burning to do inside. Well, here it is years later and the burning inside has turned into heartburn, the passion smolders to no avail and we feel stuck.

What do you enjoy doing?

Interests are the activities that give us true satisfaction and pleasure. We really enjoy doing them. Knowing your general interests makes it easier for you to make good career choices. You can develop your career to include more of your interests and thus increase your career satisfaction and overall productivity.

Here’s a major revelation. It’s OK to love what you do. It’s even a good idea. Not knowing what aspects of your work are really exciting to you may cause you to act impulsively or indifferently when confronted with several options. If you don’t have a clear picture of what you really love to do, then any work may seem OK. It’s only OK to “go with the flow” if the river is flowing in your direction. Otherwise, you’ll never find joy in work. You may never even find the river.

WAYS TO GO:

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

You can identify your interests by imagining a “dream” day at work from the moment you get up (is it AM or PM?) to the moment you go to sleep. Imagine it in great detail. Oh, by the way, money doesn’t matter. You do not need to worry about making a living or paying off your college loan.

* What city are you in?
* What clothes are you wearing?
* Do you live alone? Who’s with you?
* What time do you leave for work? How do you get there? Is it far?
* Describe your perfect work day. What are you doing?
* Make a long list of your interests…as long as you can. Confess to yourself your secret heart’s desire.
* Ask a respected colleague or friend to review your list and add or subtract from their viewpoint.
* Have a conversation with a friend or colleague about your interests.

Got any clues yet? Discover your passion.

Photo: nccwm.org