Resurrect Your Career, Invigorate Your Life
I believe that true happiness and self-invigoration is attained when an individual is focused on a subject or skill that has deep meaning for them and they have total passion for that area. It is also an area where individuals are motivated to improve their ability and proud to share successes with others. It could be a passion for fixing engines, travel, playing a particular sport or a fascination with numbers for example and no matter what it can be turned in to a rewarding career or life goal. As an example I once saw an episode of the English version of 'The Dragons Den' which focused on an entrepreneur that was passionate about cleaning windows. From the humble beginnings of a window cleaning round with not too many clients he has now built up his business up to be one of the biggest corporate window cleaning businesses in the UK. Cleaning, go figure!
Unfortunately one of the greatest things that holds us back from turning the things we are passionate about into something that provides a highly satisfying career or secondary venture is the uncertainty and lack of understanding of the things that light up the soul and stimulate the mind. It is this lack of clarity that results in people sticking with the safe mundane job rather than taking risk. It is the mentality of either living to enjoy your work and life as a whole or working to live for moments in a weekend or sporadic holidays. Remember for many people a job and travel may account for over a third of their available weekly time and sleep another third. Do you really want to be in that mundane job that fails to inspire you or do you want to make changes and become more pro-active doing the things you love?
A recent survey shows that 75% of the population do not know what their true passion is. Perhaps this is why there is so much unhappiness in our society for to be truly happy, you have to really love and be passionate about what you do.
Below is a list of 7 things you need to ask yourself to help you uncover and understand what you are passionate about.
What puts a smile on your face? I believe that exploring and nurturing something that makes you truly happy is a large part why we exist. Explore your past to pinpoint the times when you were truly happy and the things you have done that have brought you total joy.
What do you find easy? Often the things that seem simple or come as second nature will be related to what we are passionate about. It’s very hard to hate something that is very easy!
What sparks your creativity? Picture the things in your life where you seem to always expand the boundaries, always coming up with new, fun, and exciting ideas about that subject. Areas where you are creative are areas you are passionate about.
What would you do for free? What would you just love to do, even if you were not getting paid? Think about something that you look forward to doing, something that you wish you could do all the time.
What do you like to talk about? Most of the time, we aren’t aware of this, but ask a friend what they believe you like to talk about the most, what topic makes your eyes brighten up, and changes your entire behaviour?
What makes you unafraid of failure? When you are passionate about something, you have total confidence in your abilities. You do not worry about failing, because you believe you can't fail when you do what you love?
What would you regret not having tried? If you were at the end of your life, what would you regret not having pursued? What would you have liked to do, that you didn’t get a chance to?
Have you noticed that the professionals that are happy, appear to do things effortlessly and are creative when things do not go as planned, are often highly passionate about what they do. When people look at you the same way in whatever it is you are doing, you will know you are nurturing the things that invigorate you.
Don't look back in a few years time and regret an opportunity you did not jump at or a dream you did not develop. Start taking a few more risks with your life direction and align it with the things you are passionate about and you never know what good things will happen.
If you are struggling to unlock the passion within or need direction in turning the things that motivate you into something meaningful within your life give me a call or drop me an email. I can review the areas of your life where you are goal orientated, are highly creative and that make you happy and help you uncover new career and life pathways that will make you feel more fulfilled than you are at present.