First and foremost, recognize that you were made unique, special, and full of talent. Your job is to shine! Your job is to figure out what your gift is and give it to the world! It can be intimidating at first to have to break down the barriers of not having a belief in yourself or thinking that you are not good enough. Thoughts like, “I’m not good at anything. Who would benefit from what I have to offer?” If you are still thinking this way, it doesn’t serve you or anyone else. We all have, or have had, that thought at some point, so recognize that you are not alone. It’s a continual process to build ourselves up.
If you are still concerned about what people think, remember to not seek approval from others! Let me help you again with that. Spectators criticize. Those on the sidelines don’t have the guts yet to do anything big themselves so they attempt to make themselves feel better by putting others down. It is the classic defeating cycle of low self-esteem. Many of us are not free until we can get past low self-esteem. So don’t care what people think. We are all works in progress.
So what do you want to be when you grow up? Have you asked yourself the tough questions? What do I love to do? What am I good at? How can I get paid doing it? These are great questions. If you are not doing something you love, you are not allowing yourself to fully shine. Life really is too short to not do what you deserve to do. If you want to get what you want, it is vital to do the work you love. Once you know what you are good at and how you can serve others with what you are good at, wow, you will be living your full life. For some of us, our career is a good one; however, we are fulfilled performing our passions outside of our career. That is fine, too; just don’t hate your job.
Let’s look at your current situation. Does your current career line up with your core values? If you work for or run a company, does the company’s core values line up with your core values? Is there a challenge to conquer or a need to fulfill? What problem in society really gets you engaged? Most successful companies have a war to win. True passion comes when anger and excitement meet. For example, I am in the wellness industry and the purpose of our company is to change the way our world views health care. Our war is ignorance. We are passionate about telling people the truth about healthy health care instead of following the masses and medicating themselves to death.
Discover what you are passionate about and how you can serve the world with your passion. Continue to ask yourself, “What do I want? How can I make a positive contribution? Does what I want to do match my desired income level? What would I do all day long and not need to get paid for it?”
When beginning to recognize your passions it is helpful to look at your childhood. What did you struggle with as a child? For example, adults who were abused as children may be drawn to help abused children. Adults who were raised in poverty as children may be drawn to a career in finance. Did you have any struggles as a child? This is a big one. Is it possible that you experienced those struggles so that you could relate to others with the same struggle and show them how to overcome it?
I know the question, “What are you passionate about?” can really stump us. It is not an easy answer to rattle off, and it takes some exploration. I am throwing a lot of questions at you to get your mind working on this. Let’s tackle this challenge by focusing on these three main questions:
1. What areas of life do you really enjoy? For example, what do you just love: health, finance, animals, sports, children, politics, beauty, fashion, relationships, nature, etc. What areas of life give you your juice?
2. What are your skills and abilities? Take a look at your natural skills and abilities. What am I good at? What do others say I’m good at? What skill or ability do I do that brings me alive? For example, “I am good at numbers. I am 7 feet tall. I am great with people. I’m a good public speaker. I connect easily. I am really good at checklists. I am super organized.”
3. How can you get paid using your skills and abilities in the area of life that you really enjoy? First, ask yourself, “Do I want to be a team member with a great company or do I want to be self-employed? Do I have an entrepreneur mindset or an employee mindset?” If you want to open your own business, ask yourself, “What product or service do people need?” Or if you want to find a great position with an existing company, start with the area of life you enjoy and then make sure your skill sets match up with the job description and make sure you line up with the values of the company.
Once we know what area of life we enjoy and what skills and abilities we bring to the table, from there it is a matter of bringing it all together. Ask yourself, “What areas of life do I enjoy? What are my skills and abilities? How can I get paid using my skills and abilities in the areas of life that I really enjoy?” Life is a bowl of cherries. Take the biggest bowl you can get!