Want to re-ignite your career passion? Take responsibility for making changes in your career and life.
- Identify what’s most important to you, then develop and work a plan to get there. The plan should involve short-term goals that lead to a long-term objective. When Bonnie decided that engineering management was no longer for her, she applied the discipline of the corporate world to her new career: owning a gourmet coffee shop. Bonnie learned everything she could about specialty coffees and how to run a coffeehouse. She made good use of experts in the field. She then moved quickly toward her goal of opening Javalina’s Coffee and Friends in Tucson, Ariz. The thorough approach increased her chance of success.
- Make a list of your abilities and interests, and then see how they match. You may be doing something you’re good at, but don’t enjoy. Instead, find something you enjoy and then learn what it takes to get good at it. Serena was fortunate that her vocational calling was right under her nose. For years she helped friends and colleagues improve their writing skills through informal coaching sessions. She realized that the gift for teaching others how to transform ideas into prose wasn’t just a hobby. It was a career and vocational calling. Today, she runs Book Coach Press, which has launched 13 book titles (including my own P Is for Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day).
- Don’t be afraid to move toward your goals. Many people understand the need for change but are frozen in place. There’s fear that we may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. When Anita lost her engineering job, she avoided self-pity and instead grasped the possibilities of her new freedom. She began a journey of self-discovery that uncovered a long-undiagnosed illness, hypoglycemia and with it a new calling. She soon wrote a book on hypoglycemia. Now, she helps others understand and manage the disease. Anita turned what could have been a series of unfortunate events into a new calling that has brought career passion to her life.
Remember: No one will pull you aside at work, look you in the eye, and ask if you’re really happy with your career and your life. The power to understand what’s missing and do what’s necessary to find it is yours alone. Take responsibility for change, and change will happen.
Read Take Stock of Your Career Passion.
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Craig Nathanson is The Vocational Coach™ and the author of the new book, P Is for Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day by Bookcoach Press and the publisher of the free Ezine, Vocational Passion in Mid-life. Craig believes the world works a little better when we do the work we love. Craig Nathanson helps those in mid-life carry this out. Visit his on-line community
