Finding Out What You Love to Do

by Michael Corthell

Deciding on a career may seem seriously difficult—it is a serious decision, but it doesn't have to be difficult. However, the problem can be in trying to match your aptitude and the skill-sets, to the right job or career.

''Communication—Interpersonal Connectivity—is one of
the key factors in all personal and career successes.''

But, the best advice in this article, no matter what I write below is this: Do what makes you happy. Why? Because research has shown that a career that you absolutely hate can be worse for your over-all health than having no job at all and being poor. So, by being very aware of what your 'likes' and 'enjoyment' levels are when planning a career, plus making sure that you factor in everything involved in deciding on that career, you can go a long way in ensuring your satisfaction.

Let's take a look:

The first step then involves three questions:

• What do I want?
• What makes me happy?
• What does success look like to me?

Second, what are your natural talents? Everyone, who is trying to figure out how to choose a career path, usually discovers that it is important to match what they would like to do with their natural talents. Everyone has a set of special talents and its important that a job/career accentuate those talents.

Next, think about a livable lifestyle and match the job to it. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they choose a career path is that they tend to just focus on survival needs (bread money). Very seldom do people actually take the time to think about the lifestyle they want to live. This is very important.

Become an expert in the career field or job that you've chosen. Also important is that you have a positive mindset about moving toward being the very best at what you do. The best way to create leverage and have more negotiating power with any company or client you work with is by being an expert in your career field. So prepare to eat, sleep, and breathe all the information that it will take to become a 'wizard' in your work.

Love the job and the industry. Know that besides loving what you do, you have to love the industry you are working in. When you choose a career and then become part of that field of endeavor, you become part of a specific group in our society that is producing a product or service that has value and is improving our culture. Embrace that realization and love what your career field does. 

Lastly, this ties into the first bit of advice which is make sure you're doing something that makes you happy. To stay happy in your career, do not shy away from appreciation and rewards. It is not an ego thing. We all need this, whether we know it or not, but now you do know. Acknowledgement is all about encouragement and incentive.

Today, a life-time career isn't often held up as the ideal employment path any longer, but the field of industry which you choose can be very important because it will probably determine where you will spend a good chunk of your life, where you find good opportunities and the kinds of people you will meet and associate with.

So, be wise and choose wise. Choose a field of endeavor that will use as many of your talents as possible. This will allow you the greatest freedom possible to fill multiple roles within it.

_______________________

How to find and do work you love

by Scott Dinsmore

Scott Dinsmore's mission is to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing. He is a career change strategist whose demoralizing experience at a Fortune 500 job launched his quest to understand why 80% of adults hate the work they do, and more importantly, to identify what the other 20% were doing differently.

His research led to experiences with thousands of employees and entrepreneurs from 158 countries. Scott distilled the results down to his Passionate Work Framework - three surprisingly simple practices for finding and doing work you love, that all happen to be completely within our control. He makes his career tools available free to the public through his community at http://LiveYourLegend.net