Stop searching for the perfect job and start finding your life's work
Many of us have talked at length about the pursuit of a meaningful, rewarding career. We have lived through tyrannical bosses, mergers and acquisitions, exhausting work and travel schedules and various states of financial panic. We saw the job market explode and shrivel before we knew what to do about it, and comforted way too many friends and former colleagues who spent huge stretches of time out of work. Some of us were those people and wondered if we were destined to become the modern equivalent of dust-bowl farmers.
Just about every single client I have ever worked with has started their career quest by wondering what job would be of interest. The problem is, when you focus first on the perfect job, you automatically narrow your opportunities to jobs you are familiar with. Which brings me to this month's topic:
Stop searching for the perfect job and start finding your life's work
Jobs are temporary things, often enticing on paper until you realize that as soon as you get comfortable in your position, it will change, your boss will change, your team will change or your organization will change. That is just the nature of business. Therefore if you go into a job excited by the position or the person you will be working for and not the work itself, you often set yourself up to be disappointed.
Your life's work on the other hand, are activities that you have natural talent for, which energize you and stimulate you and do not change no matter what "job" you happen to be in.
I found this for myself when I began to think about my own life's work. I reflected back on all the things I have done in my career and I came to the realization … the core of my life's work is about transformation.
- As a young community development college student, I was passionate about the capability of communities to transform themselves from repressed and poor into empowered and economically viable with grassroots leadership.
- As a martial art teacher, I continually was awed by students' complete physical transformations from being disconnected from their bodies to developing lean, mean fighting machine physiques and strong, empowered minds.
- As an organizational consultant, I love watching leaders, teams and organizations transform from bitter, blocked, political and unfocused operations to smoothly running places where people want to work.
- As a personal coach, I am amazed to watch individuals completely transform their thinking about what their life could be.
- As an addict of home improvement shows such as Trading Spaces and Clean Sweep, I get more excited than I should about watching a shabby 1970's family room turn into a place of peace and beauty, all on $1,000 budget.
By realizing that I thrive on transformation, I can be in many different and difficult "job" situations and still feel excited and motivated to be learning something that contributes to my life's work.
How do you begin to understand what your life's work is?
Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle (you may end up needing a couple of sheets of paper). In the left-hand column, list the jobs you have held over your working life.
In the right-hand column, take one job at a time and answer the question:
- When I really enjoyed this job, what was I doing?
List all these activities in the right-hand column. When you have finished with your first job, go through each job on the list and continue to add activities on the right-hand column.
Next, in the left-hand column, list all the volunteer activities or hobbies that you have been involved with over the years. In the right-hand column, answer the same question:
- When I am really enjoying this volunteer work or hobby, what am I doing?
Once you have completed your list, look at all the items in the right-hand column and try to see patterns. You can group your thoughts in categories if it is more helpful.
How can focusing on your life's work help to find more meaningful jobs?
When we look for career direction with a "job" focus, it is very easy to see things in a linear fashion. How could you possibly go from a trainer to a restaurant owner? When you look at things in terms of your life's work, the transition can be very clear:
For example, as a trainer, what kind of work did I enjoy?
- Working with all kinds of groups of people to figure out what they were interested in
- Creating comfortable, interesting environments
- Creating colorful, creative displays and presentations that contributed to a comfortable environment
- Carefully planning and defining learning objectives and creating a clear path to get there
- Ordering interesting food for my classes
- Getting teams motivated and aligned around a single goal
- Individual interactions and conversations
- Trouble-shooting and solving crises in the moment
- Developing a proposal and delivering on-time and on-budget
All of this experience can be very helpful in opening a restaurant. Clearly there are some skills or experience that you don't have, but often it will be less daunting than if you view it as a "total career change." When you look at your life work, many possibilities begin to appear.
By looking at your total life work experience, you will feel confident and prepared to make significant career changes.
Good Books on this Topic
My views on this topic have been shaped by some great thinkers through the years, among them:
- Jim Collins, Good to Great
- William Bridges, Job Shift and You & Company
- Martha Beck, Finding Your Own North Star
Do you know of any others? Email me and tell me about them! pcs@ganas.com
Speaking of Transformation
Many of you already know that I am going to be a mommy! My tummy is transforming as we speak, as are my hormones, emotions and entire world. We are very excited! We expect the little one will join us around March 29. I would blame intense morning sickness for disrupting my publishing date a bit, but alas that would be making excuses.
I hope you take some time out to focus on your life's work this month. Enjoy the process!
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All the best,
-Pam
Pamela Stewart
Ganas Consulting
1155 S. Power Road, Suite 114
PMB 110
Mesa, AZ 85206
480-663-3252
pcs@ganas.com
© 2004 Pamela Stewart, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the Get a Life eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution. Please also notify me.
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