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Do you wake up every Monday dreading the work week ahead? What a terrible way to go through your career! Join me this week as we discuss a simple five-step process that can help you find the work you were born for. You’ll tap into your passions and strengths, and find ways to apply them in meaningful, powerful ways – and improve your happiness in the process!
Step 1: Self-Inquiry
Ask yourself: what are you doing when you’re happiest at your job? What are you doing when you lose track of time?
For me, reading, researching, analyzing, and sharing what I found are the most motivating aspects of my work. I often lose track of time when I start planning things. That could be anything: creating my home budget, planning shows for the podcast, or even helping my sister plan her kitchen remodel. I really like planning!
When you gain insight into those tasks and activities that make you happiest, or that cause you to lose track of time, you begin to understand where your passion truly lies. Think about what really lights you up. If you had your choice, you could spend all day doing this thing, or at least a significant chunk of the day. What would it be?
Step 2: Assess Your Strengths
Now you understand what you’re passionate about. Next, you need to understand your strengths. I recommend using a third party assessment, and one of my favorites is Strength Finder 2.0 by Gallup. It’s affordable, easy to complete, and comes with an amazing report that includes recommendations. You could also use the Myers-Briggs inventory to gauge your strengths.
If you’re looking for something quick, and easy, and super informal, you could just ask your friends, or maybe trusted colleagues at work, “What are my three greatest strengths?” Their answers will help you get a sense of your strengths, as other people see them.
Step 3: Find Your Sweet Spot
Now, you’ve got those two pieces of the puzzle. You have your passion and you know your strengths. How to best use your strengths toward your passion?
Let’s use a Venn diagram; the two circles that meet and overlap. Plot your strengths on one circle and your passions on the other circle. Where they overlap, that’s your gold mine. This is the path to pursuing your passion. It’s going to let you leverage your strengths, but also amplify opportunities to perform the work that you were born to do in your office.
For me, planning, and research, and analytics, and advising, that’s all stuff I really like to do. They’re also my strengths. Consulting and coaching are my sweet spots.
Step 4: Share Your Gifts
Okay, now you know your sweet spot. What do you do next? Incorporate your passion in the job you have now.
For the strengths that you can use in your workplace, find small ways to incorporate them in your work. Look for opportunities to share your gift in the workplace, because when we’re engaged in work that we like to do, we’re happier at work, and we also do better work. Do you remember talking about that in the Grit episodes (episodes 41 and 42)? I said, “Listen up managers, if you want to get the best workout of your employees, connect them with work they like to do.” That’s what this step is all about.
For me, we’ve established that I like to plan. That skill or passion lines up very easily in the workplace. I could do project planning, strategic planning, or planning an office move if we’re relocating. Even planning the holiday party! (Can you tell I’m excited for the holidays?)
The idea is to find these little gateway opportunities in the beginning. There’s always an opportunity to show your gifts. There’s an opportunity to show how valuable you are, and this is going to lead to more significant prospects in the future. People are going to see your enthusiasm and your passion at work, and these small gateway opportunities transition our passions into a main piece of our job.
Step 5: Connect to Purpose
You found your sweet spot and you’re grabbing opportunities to flex that muscle. This step is really about making it stick. You want to find ways to find meaningful and gratifying opportunities to connect working on your passion with others.
My purpose is connecting others with work they love. I want everyone to do the work they love. That is my passion and connecting it to a purpose is helping others find their passion. The idea is to serve others with your passion, because research shows, when we serve other, we’re happier.
Are you ready to join me and find your passion? My Stop Sleepwalking Through Your Career, Awaken Your Professional Passion webinar is tomorrow, November 2nd at 12pm EST. Sign up below to join me and learn more about how these five steps can change your career.
Click Here to Sign Up for the
Professional Passion Workshop
