Thursday, July 13, 2006

What do you want to be when you grow up?

When posed with the question, "if you had to leave your job today, and find a different job, and I paid you the same amount of money you are currently making what would you want to do everyday? You can do anything in the world, regardless of location, experience and education. What would you want to do everyday?"

I only remember 1 person ever answering the question with "I don't know". Everyone else has a hard time wrapping their minds around getting paid for doing something you love or enjoy instead of something that pays the bills.

Every person on this planet has skills that only they possess. They have something that they are good at and love to do. What is yours?

Maybe you love licking stamps and placing them just perfectly in the corners of envelopes. Maybe you found your passion when helping your mom pay the bills many years ago, and it still drives you everyday. Some would say this passion is odd and you can never make money at it. My answer to you is WHY NOT? If you love something that much, the questions you need to ask yourself are 1) how do I do this more? and 2) how do I get paid to do this?

You have all heard of the people who play video games for a living. I have even heard of people playing a specific video game, getting a dozen different players at very high levels, and then selling their players to someone else, or even the stuff that they have aquired at the different levels in the game. To me that is odd, but for someone that is their passion and they found a way to monetize it.

The choice to do something you love is not for the weak at heart. I suggest is is much easier to just get a job that pays the bills, and drag yourself through life. Think about what your obituary will read, "she was a really nice person, but spent most of her time at a job that she really wasn't passionate about." I have read my fair share of obituaries and the people who lived with passion, their energy I picked up on reading their obituary even after they passed. I don't want fame, I just want to be remember as being helpful and having a passion for life.

So again I ask you what is your passion? What do you look forward to doing every day? When you are sitting in that long meeting, or day dreaming at work what is it about? Or even more simply what you do best at work? Party planner? Cake maker?

I have a great friend, actually she is my mentor, someone that helps me to find my own path. She wrote a book entitled "Work as a Heroic Journey." It is about how to experience greater meaning and joy in your work. Since 99% of the people I know have to go to work everyday, why not use that time to find your passion and provide greater meaning on a daily basis?

If you are passionate about something you know it, because you spend all your waking hours thinking about it or doing it. If you love doing it why not find a way to spend more time doing it? And get paid?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home