The average person spends 90,000 hours working over the course of their career. That’s a big chunk of your life.
Yet many people spend that time at jobs that they hate. Or at best, tolerate.
Now there are people who love their jobs. You probably know some of them. They seem as energized at the end of the day as they are at the beginning. They’ve found a way to combine their passions with their skills and strengths in a way that generates a good income for them. They love going to work every day. People love working with them. Promotions and raises come easily to them.
Before we look at their secret, let’s consider what typically stops people from finding their ideal job.
In my years of coaching people through career transition, I’ve found the answer typically falls into one of these categories:
You don’t know what you want to do. You’re 100% certain what you DON’T like, but you have no idea what you do want.
Your mind is overflowing with all sorts of ideas about jobs that you could do, jobs that intrigue you, jobs that sound better than what you’re doing right now, but you have no idea which one to pick or how to figure out if it really is right for you.
You have a couple good ideas of jobs you think you’d like, but you’re afraid of picking the wrong one and ending up being dissatisfied yet again. Maybe you’ve even changed jobs a couple times and already had this happen to you.
You’re afraid that changing careers to something you really love means you’ll have to take a lower salary or go back to school. And you have a family to support, you have responsibilities, you have a way of life that you enjoy, you don’t have time. You just don’t want to start over again.
You don’t believe it’s possible for you, or that it’s too late for you. You’ve tried finding that ideal career for years and have decided that finding work you enjoy just isn’t going to happen for you.
I used to fall into most of these categories myself. I spent decades searching for my ideal career and never feeling totally satisfied with my job. I didn’t hate everything I did - there were some jobs that I tolerated and some that I even loved for a few years. But I always ended up feeling that there was something more I was meant to do.
So, after years of working in less-than-satisfactory jobs, I decided it was time to figure it out. It was time to figure out my ideal career and then help others do the same.
What I discovered is that people who love their jobs know 4 things that others don’t.
They know what they want out of life – not just out of work.
People often skip this step when they’re first entering the workforce by looking for an occupation that is in demand. Perhaps it’s something their parents or a teacher told them they should pursue, or maybe they saw something online about the hottest 10 jobs of the year. So, they picked something that sounded the best and tried to fit themselves into it - and maybe it worked in the beginning. They may have even loved their jobs at one time.
But over time, this approach almost always leads to unhappiness and a sense that’s something is missing - a feeling that there’s something better out there for them.
People who are happy with their careers take an entirely different approach. They identify first what they want out of life and what they value the most before they even start thinking of a profession.
They know what their unique genius is – what their strengths and talents are and how to use them in a way that’s valuable to employers.
People who use their strengths every day find that work seems less like work and more like fun. The days pass quickly. Promotions and raises come easily. They feel energized and engaged by the work they’re doing.
It’s the difference between floating downstream and enjoying the ride versus swimming upstream against a strong current.
They’ve identified the voices inside their head that tell them they’re not good enough. Not good enough to do whatever it is they’ve thought of doing. They know what these beliefs are and have developed a way to overcome them in order to get what they want.
They have an active system for finding opportunities, one that doesn’t depend on passively applying for jobs online and waiting for an employer to contact them.
Only 10% of jobs are found by applying online, and if you’re changing careers, the odds are even less. People who love their jobs and make the kind of money they want have an active system for finding and creating their own ideal jobs.
The great news is that all 4 of these are skills that can be learned, and even better, once you’ve learned them, they’re yours for life!
People who love their jobs usually don’t stumble upon them by accident – they have a systematic process for identifying what they want out of life, knowing what their genius is and then implementing a plan to find those jobs.
It’s a system I use to help my clients find careers they love. And it’s something that anyone can learn and implement.
If you’d like to learn how to utilize these strategies to find your ideal career, request a free, no-obligation Strategy Consultation at RevolutionYouCoaching.
Shouldn’t your 90,000 hours be spent doing something you love?