Work: Labor or Love?

September 5, 2011 By

Labor or Love?

Work, is it a labor of love?

Today is Labor Day in America.  It became a national holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland reconciled with the labor movement following the deaths of workers during the Pullman Strike.  Fearing further conflict, the bill was rushed through Congress a mere 6 days after the strike.  Much has changed in the workplace since then.  Now we largely look at Labor Day as the last weekend of summer and the kickoff of the football season, a day off for fun and relaxation. 

If we view this occasion as it was originally conceived, it is a day to appreciate those in the workforce and celebrate employment. I ask you; do you feel celebratory at work?  Are you fully engaged and joyfully expressing your talents and skills?  Do you really like your job? Are you appreciated and rewarded for your contributions?  Do you feel energized by the work you do?  Sadly, I don’t think the majority of workers would answer yes to these questions. 

When my daughter graduated college, she had a hard time being motivated to get that first job.  I asked her what came to mind when I said the word:  work.  She thought a minute and then said; “I get a picture of a sweaty bald guy in a warehouse pulling a huge chain.”  My internal response was “yikes, she views work as drudgery!”  Sadly, I think many people view work from this perspective. (Happily, my daughter now loves her work as a blogger, freelance writer and social media consultant in Denver).

For many people, a job is tied to the idea of being in servitude to get a paycheck.  I’ve had coaching clients tell me they are miserable in their jobs but are locked into the “golden handcuffs”.  They feel they cannot leave their jobs for fear of losing health insurance and other benefits.  I ask them, “If you really can’t leave your work, can you find a way to be more satisfied with it?”

What would happen if you shifted your perception and viewed work as a creative expression of yourself?  How might you bring your natural talents and skills into your work life?  Can you see how your work could then become a “labor of love”?  I believe that each and every one of us can find or create work that is inherently fulfilling.  If you are currently in a job, consider how you can experience it with more joy.  Ask yourself:   

  • What is one thing I can do this week to find more pleasure and satisfaction at work?
  • How can I make the best contribution to my workplace, my co-workers, or my employer?
  • What can I change in my daily routine to make my job more interesting?   

If you are looking at career options, consider these questions:   

  • What am I passionate about?  How might I express my passion through my work?
  • Is my work an expression of me?  Is the work I do in alignment with my value system? 
  • What kind of work would energize me?
  • Who could utilize my natural talents, skills, education, etc.?  Where is there a need I can fill?   

If you can’t find a way to “love the work you’re with” it’s time to look elsewhere. You might consider creative self employment, starting a small business or a combination in income producing endeavors.  Remember you don’t have to do a particular kind or work, you have choice!

“Follow the path of your potential and live the work you love”  –Dee

 

Filed Under: Career Transition, Featured, Finding Your Passion Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Career Independence

July 4, 2011 By

4th of July

Career Independence

As we celebrate the birth of our country on the 4th of July in the U.S., I got to thinking about what independence means from a career point of view.  For many people, the word career equals “full time job” and implies that we will be dependent on employers to derive an income for most of our adult lives.  Unfortunately with shifting economies and markets, long term employment is not always an option even if we chose that route.  Being someone’s employee is not always attractive either.  If you’ve ever considered starting a business or being creatively self employed, declaring career independence here are some things to consider:

What do you love to do that you do really well? For instance, are you a terrific organizer who excels at keeping everything running efficiently and timely? Do you enjoy re-doing closets and cabinets to make the contents more orderly and easy to find? Do you get energized by this kind of activity? If you answered yes to these questions, one of your skills may be in organizing. What can you do with this talent?  Here’s an example: Nancy McKinney launched her business; Successful Organizing Solutions in 1999 and loves being a “solo entrepreneur”. She added some coach training and received certification through BCPO, a professional organization in her field and has turned her talent into a successful business. Whatever you really enjoy doing and have competency in is worth exploring whether or not you could turn it into a business.

Who needs what you have to offer? Once you’ve identified your skills, talents, and passions it is time to determine where they may best be useful. Is there a need for whatever product or service you want to share with others? You may be the greatest cookie baker in three states but if there isn’t a need for a cookie store in your area it may not a good idea to start a bakery. Then again, there are many avenues to market products beyond having a bricks and mortar business. Gail Ambrious took her passion for chocolate and launched her business in 2004. Laid off from her “steady job” with the state, she decided to pursue her dreams and has since become known for “the best little box of chocolates” by the Food Network.

Besides what you are passionate about, think of all the life experience you’ve had, how might that be useful to others? How can you be of service in the world? Bottom line:  who needs what you have to offer?  Answer this question and you’ve identified your customer base.

Is there someone else doing the kind of business you are considering? Identify those people and organizations. For instance, if you are thinking of doing a doggy daycare, see who else has one and check it out. Note what you like and don’t like about their advertising, facility, customer service, etc. How do they get customers? How might you approach your target customers differently? What might you improve on?

Is being self employed or starting a business a right fit for your personality and lifestyle? If you’ve been an employee for years, you may find it challenging to switch your perspective to being the boss.  It can be tremendously fulfilling to create your own business, work when, where and how you choose to, and not have to get someone else’s permission. It also entails self motivation and requires you to be willing to accept failure, learn from it and keep moving your business forward.

 

Filed Under: Finding Your Passion, Starting a Business Tagged With: , ,

Dream Careers are Like Butterflies

April 4, 2011 By

Butterfly on Yellow FlowerIn our culture, the mass media bombards us with the idea that there is a “dream career” or a “perfect job” out there for everyone. I believe this is true, but for many of us finding that ideal work situation can be like trying to catch a butterfly – it always seems to be just beyond our reach.

You may spend years in school studying to become a ___________ (you fill in the blank) only to enter that career and discover it’s not what you really want – or worse – that you just aren’t good at it.

Some folks chase the money and plan their career trajectory based on what work yields the highest paycheck, but even if they end up making the big bucks, most don’t report feeling they have the “work of their dreams.”

So the question is, how do we discover what the perfect career for each of us is?

The keys to determining what might be fulfilling work  for you are pretty simple:

1.     Identify what work tasks you both enjoy and do well

2.     Identify work tasks that you don’t like BUT do well

3.     Identify work tasks you enjoy BUT don’t do well

4.     Identify work tasks that you both dislike and don’t do well

Here is a video explaining this further:

The challenge is that most people get stuck in jobs where they have several tasks that they do well, but don’t really enjoy. In order for us to be fulfilled at work, we need to be engaged doing things that we both are good at and therefore can be successful doing, but that also connect us to our passions and have an intrinsic value to us. This is what makes work truly fulfilling. By identifying the things above, you are taking the first step toward determining what the best work for you may be.

Bottom line:  you’ll never find that dream job without first determining what you’re naturally talented at and enjoy doing.  You must to be willing to take some risks in following your heart’s desire for doing work you’ll really enjoy.  You may need to take a less than perfect job to make ends meet while you return to school to increase your knowledge or get training to learn new skills.  You may experience criticism from friends, family and colleagues if you decide to “leave the mainstream” and significantly change your career path.  You are the only one who truly knows what that great work will be and it won’t be found in a job description written by someone else.

If you’d like some support and resources to begin this process, check out the exercises and inventories in my free “Discover Your Calling” e-course.  Sign up on the top right of this page.

Filed Under: Career Transition, Finding Your Passion, Videos Tagged With: , ,

4 Ways to Discover Your Passions

February 14, 2011 By

Passions excite us, enliven our being and reflect our heart’s desire.  Do you know what you are really passionate about?  Are your passions able to be expressed through the work you do?  How do we identify our passions?   For some, their passion is ingrained in their being from birth.  They just know what they want to be when they “grow up” and find a way to live their life around what they are passionate about.

1. Discovering your passion through just “knowing” from birth


Heart shaped leaves

discover your passions


My Dad for instance, was fascinated with flying and spent his life in aviation, first as a Navy pilot then as an aeronautical engineer with NASA. When he retired he continued following his passion of flight and built an airplane in his garage.  It took him 7 years to plan and then build the plane and then another year to get healthy enough to fly it.  He was in his late 70’s by then and had to have cataract surgeries on both eyes before he was allowed to pilot his beloved little plane.  He really lived his life around his passion!

2. Discovering your passion through an epiphany

Sometimes life hands you the insight in an epiphany.  I’ve heard many clients report a crisis of sorts prompted a sudden realization of what they wanted to do with their life.  I call this the “wake-up call”. It may be precipitated by a dramatic life event such as a losing a job, going through a divorce or experiencing a serious illness or injury.  For me, it was facing being downsized from my job as a recruiter in a staffing agency.  It was literally like a switch was flipped in my brain and I made the mental leap from “guess I’ll need to go look for another job” to “what if instead of looking for candidates to fill companies staffing needs, I championed  individuals and helped them find satisfying work that really fits their needs?”  (read more on my story on the About page)

3. Discovering your passion through trial and error

The third way to uncover our passion is by trial and error.  I think most people do this to some extent.  We take classes we have some interest in and explore various careers.  The process of trying out a variety of work situations can lead us to realizing what we do and do not find rewarding. We may stumble into a great job or end up in a fulfilling occupation simply by circumstance and the process of elimination. My daughter for instance, studied a variety of subjects in college and ended up with a degree in cultural studies and comparative literature.  Not exactly a fast track to a solid career. Over the next 5 years she worked in office administration, retail sales, taught karate, became a licensed massage therapist, was a tour guide and concluded that what she was really passionate about was being creatively self employed, helping people tell their stories and throwing theme parties.  She now lives in Denver and happily juggles multiple income streams as a freelance writer, editor, social media consultant and wedding planner. You don’t have to pick just one occupation or career.  Keep experimenting until you find work that makes your heart sing!

4. Discovering your passion through introspection

When we respond to a yearning to have creative self expression, to do work that is in alignment with our core values and beliefs we have begun the process of looking inward.  Conventional wisdom teaches us to go to school, get a good job, work hard, and save enough money to someday retire. However practical this path seems to be, there may come a point in which our heart overrules our head and the sensible path is no longer enough for us. We start to question the status quo, we become restless, anxious, stressed or depressed. We began to really want to be able to express our passions, to work enlivened, to be intrinsically in alignment with our deepest yearnings.  Responding to this call of the heart can be life changing.

Tama Kieves in her book, This Time I Dance poignantly describes her experience of leaving her law practice in order to do pursue her love of writing.  She talks about searching for answers by reading self help books like she was “in a library on fire” and by challenging her own beliefs about the work she was “supposed to do.”  Today she is a successful author, speaker, and workshop presenter who inspires others to live their creative dreams.

Who knows what you might become, what inspiring work you may do?   If you’re in the looking inward process seeking to identify your passions and discover your natural talents, one of my earlier posts may be helpful: “12 Questions to Help you Find Your Calling”


“My heart guides me tenderly and truly.  I find ways through the wilderness.  My heart finds paths through the desert.”  –Julia Cameron


To find your passion, listen to the wisdom of your heart,

Dee


Filed Under: Featured, Finding Your Passion Tagged With: , , ,

How to Have Meaningful Work

October 21, 2010 By

Fall Tree

In autumn, the trees are shedding their old leaves and going into the sleepy hibernation of winter, to emerge again in the spring with new growth and renewed life force. As people we need to “shed” old patterns of self-limiting beliefs, habits that have impeded our forward growth, and behaviors that no longer serve us. Unlike the trees who drop their leaves based on a seasonal climate cycle, we can drop our self-defeating beliefs and behaviors at will. We have the power of choice.

Those of us who are dissatisfied with our jobs may discount our work as not having meaning or purpose. We view it as something we have to do to make money, rather than as something that has intrinsic value for our self-development. The number one reason clients come to me for career coaching is for help in finding fulfilling, meaningful work.

How do you define meaningful work? My clients frequently point out examples of people doing humanitarian work, scientists who are researching to find cures for deadly diseases, social works, teachers and others whom, by virtue of their vocations, are visibly being of service. What about the guy who fixes your car so you can safely transport your family? The engineers who ensure that you have electricity? The farmers who grow your food? Their work is meaningful, purposeful and certainly benefits others. Sometimes finding the right livelihood is not about obtaining another job, but rather it is about shifting our perspective about the work we already have.

If you’re feeling that your job is meaningless or purposeless, try to shift your perspective. To get started, ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the end result of the work you do?
2. Who benefits from your efforts?
3. Are you providing service to your community or the world in some way?
4. What values do you express through your work?
5. How do you impact others at work?
6. Is your attitude toward work mostly positive or mostly negative? Can you shed the negative?
7. What is one thing you could do differently to be of better service to your employer, your co-workers, your clients, or your customers?

“It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life and it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.” –Jim Collins

Filed Under: Featured, Finding Your Passion, Self Development

The Key to Fulfilling Work – Look Inward

March 25, 2010 By

Are you scouring want ads, searching internet job sites, and checking out staffing agency listings in hopes of finding your next great career move? The truth is there aren’t so many employers looking to hire these days and the job market remains quite competitive. Maybe what you are looking for isn’t “out there”. There really isn’t a job description that says “this is your ultimate perfect work come apply now”. The thing is, we need to stop looking out there for the elusive fulfilling work and start looking inward.

In working with people on career change one question I hear frequently is: “How can I have work that is personally fulfilling, makes a difference, and pays the bills?” There is no easy answer to this question. Cheryl Richardson in her book Stand Up for Your Life says: “First, you must make your personal and spiritual development a top priority by following your own unique path toward healing and growth. Second, as you develop a strong character by doing this work, you are also charged with improving the world in some way.”

Personal and spiritual development requires you to look inward, to get to know your inner self. Who are you? What are you passionate about? What are you good at? What motivates you? What kinds of tasks do you really enjoy doing and do well? You don’t have to have all the answers at any given time but it can be extremely helpful to identify these.

Here are some examples:
• bringing joy to others
• building things
• teaching or mentoring others
• creating beauty
• healing wounds
• analyzing information
• finding a new or better way for something to function
• gathering data
• nurturing people

Think about what you love to do that comes easily to you. These are your natural talents or “gifts”. Next, consider how these talents are expressed in your life. Let’s say for example, you identified “teaching or mentoring others” as a core driver for you. How might you do that in your life? Is it something you do in your current occupation or job? Are you able to teach or mentor through other means such as volunteer work? If not, is there a way you can incorporate teaching and mentoring others into your life? Moving into the work you love to do and do well gives us energy, it feeds the spirit and more often than not, brings us a sense of abundance as well as increasing our cashflow.

If you have a sense of being prompted to move into a different line of work, consider what is missing in your current job or occupation. Could be a bit of looking inward is in order. More on this next post!

Filed Under: Featured, Finding Your Passion Tagged With: , ,

Respond To Your Calling

February 27, 2010 By

I believe that each and every human on the planet possesses a unique combination of gifts and talents that need to be expressed in the world. I view our physical being as the vehicle that houses our soul, our essence, our personality, through which these gifts flow.

What are you dreaming of doing, of creating, of finding? These thoughts are prompting you to take some action! We tend to sit in our minds complacently pondering the “what ifs” and wondering about the roads not taken in the past and years go by. Sound familiar? How about these thoughts: “I can’t switch careers now, I am too old” or “I’d have to go back to school and get a degree/training/certified”, or “the economy is bad, now is the wrong time for me to start a business”.

What are you telling yourself that is holding you back from pursuing your life’s work? Make a list, write it down and then go through each and every thought and look at it boldly and ask; “is this really true?” If your inclination is to nod your head just stop for a moment and watch the “proof” that your minds puts up. How do you know the internal dialog you are listening to is the truth? What if it isn’t? What if you could move beyond the naysaying in your brain and embrace a different perspective? Challenge yourself! What do you dream of doing, of becoming? Play around with ways you can share your talents, your abilities, your knowledge and skills with others. Who knows? You just may find yourself turning your dreams into reality!

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening
That is translated through you into action,
And because there is only one of you in all time,
This expression is unique.

If you block it,
It will never exist through any other medium
And will be lost.
The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is:
nor how valuable it is:
Nor how it compares with other expression.
It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly,
To keep the channel open.

You do not have to believe in yourself or your work.
You have to keep open and aware and listen
To the urges that motivate you.”
–Martha Graham and Agnes Demille

Filed Under: Featured, Finding Your Passion, Self Development Tagged With: , ,

Doing Work You Love

November 25, 2009 By

What is the purpose of working? Is it just a paycheck, a way to buy stuff? Or is it an expression of your values, talents and skills? For most of us in the U.S. it is a combination of both. Far too many of us view work as a necessary evil to be tolerated in order to live a preferred lifestyle. Given the number of hours we spend working, what does that say about our overall happiness? If we view work as drudgery, how can we experience a fulfilling meaningful life?

I propose a different perspective on work. How about looking at work as a vehicle to joyfully express your talents, skills, and creativity and make a difference in the world? It would be great if we came with directions for our life internally imprinted so that we’d know exactly what vocational path to travel. As the poet Rumi said, “everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in his (or her) heart.” It seems to me that doing work you love to do get’s you closer to uncovering your heart’s desire than doing work you dislike.

One way to identify potentially fulfilling kinds of work, is to look at your natural gifts and talents. Make a list of all the things you enjoy doing and do well such as: building boats, organizing data, healing emotional distress, keeping track of timelines. Joe, for example, has a talent for taking complex technical information and translating it into terms non-techies can understand. Not only does he do this competently, he really enjoys the process. When he is working on a project, he becomes so engaged in it that he typically loses track of time. The hours fly by and he finds he is energized rather than exhausted at the end of his workday. Joe is perhaps doing “the work that has been put in (his) heart”, as Rumi states.

We often think there is some profound “calling” to heed and that one day we will figure out what that is. In reality, callings don’t often show up with a job title. Instead of seeking that perfect career, that “dream job” consider finding a way to create income doing those tasks you do well and love to do.

Megan is a mosaic artist who loves to take beautiful pieces of colored glass and make everything from bird baths to address tiles. She teaches classes on mosiac making, and sells her products from her home studio, at shows and on the internet.

Take a moment, make your list, and listen to what your heart is telling you. What do YOU love to do that you do well? Get input from your friends and family. You may be surprised at the talents they recognize in you. See if you can come up with a list of 10 things and then look at how you may be able to generate income doing some of them.

More on this topic next post!

“Everyone has a vocation, talent is the call.” -Emerson

Filed Under: Finding Your Passion Tagged With: ,

Twelve Questions to Help You Find Your Calling

October 20, 2009 By

150 years ago peoples’ jobs were primarily determined by what they had a talent for – people worked at crafts and provided services based on their natural skills and interests. In modern times, most of us end up choosing careers for all sorts of reasons that have little or nothing to do with what we enjoy and are naturally good at. We end up in careers that are inherently wrong fits for us and we languish in cubicles or stress out in jobs we don’t like. What if we got in touch with our hidden talents and found a way to utilize our natural gifts to do work that we found satisfying, or even fun? Here are 12 questions for you to ponder to help you discover what might become your life’s work:

1. What do you love to do? Think about your hobbies, interests, recreational and volunteer activities. Most of us enjoy doing things we are good at, so our leisure activities can be indicators of your gifts and talents.

2. Recall an event when you were so absorbed in what you were doing that you completely lost track of time. What activity were you engaged in? How did it make you feel?

3. What do you naturally do well? What actions are easy for you? (for example: writing stories, fixing things, analyzing trends, cooking, organizing events, managing money, remembering facts, teaching, envisioning new ways of being, resolving disputes, creating beauty, etc.)

4. What are five things in your life, past or present, which you are most proud of or feel were your most successful accomplishments?

5. Is there a cause, a movement, or an idea that you feel committed to and passionate about? What would you “put it all on the line” for?

6. Think of a time when you experienced a breakthrough
realization. Can you describe what you were doing and where you were when you had an “ah ha” moment?

7. Looking back over your life up to now, do you see any repeating incidents, patterns or themes? What can they tell you about what you like (or don’t like) to do with your time?

8. What do you daydream or fantasize about doing? Have you ever said, “Some day I’d like to do that?” What would that be?

9. Can you think of a time when you were watching or reading about another person’s accomplishment(s) and wished you could do that? Is there a person living or dead that you greatly admire? What do you most admire that person for?

10. Do you have a sense that you have things yet to accomplish? Try to identify those. From the perspective of being at the end of your life and looking back, what will it feel like if you never attempt to do these things? What do you still want to do in your life?

11. What kind of work would you do if you knew you could not fail and money was not an issue? Think big here!  Would you work on saving the environment, advocate for social justice issues, create art or write direct a motion picture?

12. What do you want to be remembered for? How will you have contributed to the world?

Filed Under: Finding Your Passion, Self Development Tagged With: , , ,

Julie & Julia, Accidental Entrepreneurs

August 12, 2009 By

This past weekend I saw a fabulous example of following your passion: the movie Julie & Julia. The movie is based on the true story of Julie Powell, a frustrated state worker who spends her days in a cubicle taking incoming calls in the aftermath of 9/11. In search of a way to deal with her frustration and soothe her aching soul, she decides (rather on a whim) to prepare every recipe in Julia Child’s famous cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” She diligently works her way through the 536 recipes in 365 days and blogs about her trials and tribulations along the way.

In the movie we simultaneously get to view Julie’s experiences in modern day New York and Julia Child’s life during her years in France as she discovers her passion for cooking. As Americans in Paris in the 1950’s, Paul and Julia Child had a glamorous nightlife but when Paul went off to work at the embassy, Julia found herself looking for something with which to fill her days. After a few failed attempts at entertaining and educating herself, such as a hat making class which she found boring, and a bridge class with the same result, she decided to attend culinary school. Julia and her husband were enamored with the gustatory pleasures of French cuisine, and so it seemed natural that Julia would find her joy in taking classes at the renowned Cordon Bleu cooking school.

She delighted in the rigors of learning to prepare French cuisine, fearlessly attacking the tasks and holding her own in a class dominated by men. She thought about how wonderful it would be to have a cookbook in English so that “servantless” Americans could enjoy the pleasures of French cooking and collaborated with two French cooks in creating a mammoth manuscript.

Back in the states Julia Child not only got her book published but became the acclaimed “French Chef” on TV, introducing millions to the joy of boeuf bourguignon, chocolate soufflés, and the like. Julia never set out to become an entrepreneur, she simply pursued her passion and shared it with others. Similarly, Julie Powell rose to literary prominence after she was interviewed by the New York Times about her Julie/Julia project blog. Her story became a book and then a major motion picture. She has a new blog, was interviewed by Nightline (check out the clip, it has vintage footage of Julia Child!)and a second book soon to be released and isn’t working at that cubicle job anymore!

When we follow our passions, we flourish. We may find ourselves as these women did, making a living without a job.

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” –Howard Thurman

Filed Under: Finding Your Passion, Starting a Business Tagged With: , , ,
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