I was listening to a very interesting report on the radio the other day: I Know I’m Supposed To Follow My Passion. But What If I Don’t Have A Passion?
It’s a great question.
We’ve been conditioned for the last 20 years that “you can do anything you want.” How do people know what they want, especially early in life? Well, that’s where this concept of “passion” came to the forefront.
I was reading an article last week by a good friend entitled Are You A Flatlander? As a science fiction geek, this quickly brought back memories of a great story by Larry Niven published in 1967, Flatlander. Characters were lines, squares, circles and other geometrical figures who existed in just two dimensions.
My friend was trying to use this as an analogy. He points out that most of us get stuck in a two-dimensional world of money and work, trying to optimize our choices between the two.
But there’s more beautiful dimensions out there to discover. Purpose, for one.
When I work with my clients, I’m always searching for their source of inspiration. It’s one of the most important resources that they have, yet often remains unidentified.
Inspiration is a bit different to having fun. There’s a lot of ways to have fun, but they tend to be rather fleeting. I’ll go see a movie, and enjoy it – but if it dragged on for another couple of hours, I’d probably lose interest.
When it comes to managing your career, it’s a little dangerous to just focus on which activities you find enjoyable. Just because those are fun in the moment doesn’t mean that you’d like to spend the next 10 (or more) years working at it.
Inspiration is something different: It doesn’t give you pleasure from the outside, it gives you energy from the inside.
Inspiration is one of the things which makes each of us unique, linked to our personality, our goals, and purpose. It tends to tie together multiple aspects of our lives, not just limited to work or family or spirituality.
Here’s my best example: I enjoy the process of learning. Sounds simple, right? But this shows up throughout my life:
As you can see, my source of inspiration is linked to a range of activities which I find fun and enjoyable. But it’s important to understand the deeper impetus behind this, because that will help me make better career decisions.
Instead of just jumping from job to job because I’ve enjoyed when I’ve done that, I’ll evaluate new opportunities based on what I’ll be able to learn.
This is particularly important as I’m building my coaching business. I’ve been doing this as my full-time job for nearly four years now, and still have a long way to go. If I would have lost interest and moved to a different career last year, I wouldn’t be now enjoying the fruits of a growing business. So it’s crucial that I understand that my learning is now focused on working with a diverse client base, rather than changing career paths.
I work with clients to help them understand their sources of inspiration, and how they want to have that show up in their life choices. And I observe that these can sometimes show up as an internal conflict over the choices they’re making.
If you’re feeling uncomfortable and unfulfilled, look for the deeper sources of what inspires and energizes you. And keep digging!
Seth Godin wrote a blog post yesterday that struck me deeply. Perhaps it’s because it’s something that I struggle with myself!
Seth’s point is that people often want the great results, but without putting in some of the hard work to get there. They’re willing to do SOME of the hard work, but then want to skip over some key steps.
I see this all the time.
Are your values out of sync with where you work?
I’ve talked with a great number of people who feel trapped in an organization which has values different than what they feel comfortable with. Typically these employees view the company as unfair, unfeeling, even unethical.
If you’re in this situation, how do you deal with it?
Do you really care about what you do? Do you think it’s important?
I know this is a tough question to answer, because we may not want to admit the answer. We do our work because we need the money, perhaps even because we are good at it and enjoy it a bit (or at least used to).
As some of you know, I’ve been honored to be a part of this year’s Leadership Fort Collins class. I’ve learned a whole bunch, and developed great friendships with people around the city.
At the beginning of the year, they split us into small groups. Each group needs to pick its own project, and have that complete by May. There’s some really creative things going on!
My universe is converging in interesting ways right now.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about developing a reputation and being memorable. Then, as it turns out, a dear friend died last Friday. This was a gentleman who brought great joy and peace to many people over his lifetime.
As a business coach, I do a lot of work with people who are struggling to find customers. Competition is fierce, and people are reluctant to part with their money. But, to be honest, that’s always been true. We have a particular version of that going on now, but it’s always be hard to build a successful business.
Perhaps you have more modest ambitions: You just want to have a solid job which gives you reliable income in trade for your skills and hard work. It’s not like you’re out there trying to find customers.
Oh, but you are.
I had an interesting discussion today with someone who was frustrated by a lack of support from their boss. This person would like to try out a new idea, but has been unable to gain the support they’d like. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?
Often, I see that this stalemate is due to having the wrong kinds of expectations:
—> Small Fish Business Coaching