I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would like to do with my life lately. People always ask me that question and I can’t help but ponder its answers. My standard answer is outlined as follows:
1. Passion
I just did a search and apparently I’ve mentioned the word “passion” in 4 previous articles. One was about how to survive in a tough economy and another was about bringing your thoughts from ideas into reality. Now is one of the best times to indulge in your dreams if you have little to lose at this point. Despite these hard times we should try to find meaning in the face of adversity and not sit still while we’re trying to find our way.
Nevertheless, passion is an important component in almost everything we do. Why make yourself miserable or do something you don’t care about, when you could be doing something else that moves you?
I know some people will advise you to forget about passion and that a job is a job and that’s why the company pays you. There are some valid points these people make, but given the choice (which you always have), why on earth would you torture yourself with a job that you hate, unless of course you’re masochistic and like to inflict pain upon yourself?
That being said, try to turn your passions, interests, and hobbies into your job or business. Your friends and family will thank you later, when you’re not coming home griping and complaining about how lame and boring your job is everyday.
2. Help Other People
If you’re finding a job, find one in which you can help other people somehow. Why not help someone if you can? You’ll make the world a better place, this person will be grateful to you, and you’ll feel an inner sense of satisfaction.
Helping other people can be looked at from many directions. You could become a surgeon and directly save someone’s life, a mechanic who fixes a vehicle for a person that relies on it to deliver their baked goods to homeless shelters, an assistant for an executive who is stretched too thin and under pressure, or even a lawyer who saves an innocent person from going to prison. In every one of these occupations you’re helping someone in some way.
Focus on those aspects where you’re helping people and try not to get caught up in the grind. Realize that you’re making a difference and you’ll feel much better about what you’re doing with your life.
3. Money
Some of you may have seen this one coming. Yes, I said “money.” Do something where you can make enough money to be comfortable. My dad always used to say that “money gives you options.” This is completely true. Nearly everything that you do in this world requires money. It’s a sad reality.
I’m not saying that you should do something only for the sake of money. You should, however, find a job or ways in which to supplement your job, so that you can meet your basic needs and wants in life. If you keep your needs and wants simple, you’ll have less stress to make enough money to fulfill them. If, on the other hand, you want to buy a leer jet, it’s certainly going to cost you much more time and energy to reach this level of wealth.
Perhaps the main point of this entry is to say that you should consider each of these factors. Think about them separately and then weigh them in relation to the other. You could approach this from a more mathematical way or just subjectively estimate how important each factor is to you in your job search.
A person with tons of money, but that hates his work and has no satisfaction from helping people, will be miserable. Someone who helps lots of people, but is not passionate about it and has no money, will also be unhappy. She’ll need to worry about just being able to feed herself and will dread waking up in the morning to go to work. Finally, a guy who has no money, loves his work, but doesn’t help people, may be ok, but it’s unlikely they would say, “Everything is just great!”
Find a balance and mix of passion, helping others, and making money in whatever it is that you do. You’ll be much happier.
