My youngest daughter is starting out on the next leg of her life’s journey. She is leaving full time education and starting full time employment.
It is one of the most important times of her life where she is starting on her career path.
This is where so many of you get things wrong that you end up settling for a life of mediocrity settling for a career path that simply doesn’t excite you. Are you looking for something to pay your bills giving you money to spend on a few luxuries and nights out, or looking to starting a career that will bring your passions to the forefront and last for a life time?
It took me too long to realise the difference. But rest assured since I discovered the magic of doing a job you’re passionate about both my life and financial position changed for the better. I’m nearly three years into this journey and know for sure that within five all my dreams will come to fruition through the career path I’m now on.
Are you somebody that frequently complains that you have too much work, too many errands, too many obligations, too little time?
Alas it is more than common for people to feel that their time isn’t their own, instead they’re always hurrying through their to-do lists and at best end up with less than an hour a day for themselves. They spend all day doing work that brings them no enjoyment, no excitement and no fulfilment. This is not a career path, it is simply a dead end.
Why do we have so little control over our days? Do we really have that much to do and so little time for what nurtures and fulfils us?
Many would say that it is managing our time that is most people’s biggest challenge.
I don’t agree with that. I know it seems that is the issue but I actually see it in a different perspective.
It’s not about managing time, its making the deliberate decision to making the best use of our time.
I do wish that more people paid attention to how easily time is lost.
Some spend their whole life working in miserable jobs, to gain what?
How many people end up looking back and realising they’ve wasted an entire lifetime following the wrong career path?
Spending your time doing those things that you enjoy, that bring the best out of you is what each of us should be doing.
I look at my life right now and see that I am putting in about 16 hours a day into my work.
So I have to ask myself two questions.
Is my time being best spent?
Do I have a purpose in what I’m doing?
I can answer these two questions in one statement.
My working hours are being spent building my dreams so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life imprisoned as a slave to work.
To many people settle for having a unfulfilled life and they will never do anything to escape it. They allow themselves to be permanently trapped in a terrible, dead end job. To me there can be nothing worse than working hard on a job at a company that pays you less than what you’re worth , while offering you no hope for advancement, and working to gain the approval of a boss who cares nothing about your life.
You see most people view their jobs as prisons to escape from. They have no time for dreams, and no means to make any dream come true.
I think this is a short-sighted approach. Your job doesn’t have to be just a cage you want to break free from. When you view it in that way, I think it actually keeps you stuck. You are free at any times to go for your dreams and choose a career path in alignment with your passions.
The key is to first acquire a vision. A vision is a clear expressed picture of the future you wish to create. In other words, it’s a dream. What you really want to be doing to make your best life. Then you need to develop a road-map leading to the overall goal.
I’m passionate about what I do but I never lose sight of my long-term vision because it is this that gives me vibrancy in my life, a goal worth pursuing, a career path made for who I am, and for what I want in life.
In my next blog I’ll talk about this vision.
