For me, fullness of life when it comes to employment means loving the work you do.
Here are a few of questions to ask yourself, to get clues as to the kind of work you would love to do:
- What would you continue to do, even when your body is screaming for you to stop and go to bed?
- What would you choose to do for free, if money and time were no object?
- What hobbies do you have? (these are things you do, which take effort, but which you love doing and are passionate about).
For example, I’ve really started properly putting this site together over the past week; and I’ve done it, even though there have been plenty of other stuff I could have been working on – stuff which, in the short term, is more likely to earn me some money. But I’m enjoying this more!
And I’m sat typing this at 10:17pm, completely bushed from an early morning workout and an evening circuit training session…because I’m passionate about sharing my thoughts with you.
The truth is, I’ve been squirrelling away content ideas for this site for the best part of a couple of years, either on separate blogs, or notepad documents on my PC; I just didn’t have a home for it all until now.
I believe that, if you do what you love, the money will follow, because you’ll be passionate about it and will therefore naturally build your knowledge and skills in that subject; and your passion will be obvious to your clients, prospects and (if you’re employed by someone else), your bosses. These are all people who can influence your income.
So if you don’t love your work right now, but aren’t sure what line of business to go into, look to your hobbies for inspiration and think of ways you could do something with it. For instance, as a guitarist, you may not wish to be a rock star or classical virtuoso (or believe you can – more on limiting beliefs in a forthcoming blog), but perhaps you could see yourself in a business (yours or someone else’s) making, selling or teaching.
Some people stay in high paying, high pressured, long hour jobs which they hate, to pay for their expensive hobbies and holidays. Working at something unrewarding and unfulfilling just for the money is stressful, unsustainable and definitely NOT living life to the full.