What is My Life’s Purpose

FotinosPurpose

Let me ask you a couple questions: Do you love your job?  Are you living your passion?

Traveling around the country, talking to people about their passion and purpose, I often hear people say about their job, “well, I don’t love my job, but I’m good at it, so maybe I should just keep doing it.”  If you press them a little further, some people will even admit that they actively dislike their job, but stay just to get the paycheck or other benefits that come with the job.

That might sound reasonable, but in reality it’s a way that we use to stay comfortable, to avoid risk, to not take any chances, to not make waves.  In short, it’s a way to stay small.  And in fact, the longer we stay in a job that doesn’t fully nourish us emotionally, mentally, or financially, the more drained we begin to feel.  It takes a tremendous amount of energy to continue doing something that we don’t love, even if we are good at it.  When that natural energy of growth and expansion that I believe we are each destined for doesn’t have an outlet, the energy doesn’t go away — it stays stuck, and may even turn in to resentment, fear, anger, or any number of other negative experiences.

So we can see that it is vitally important to take a few moments to examine this topic more fully, and to inquire within ourselves if this resonates within.  How to start?  Asking questions is a great way to discover answers, and to find ways to move forward.  Below are some great questions to ask – you may want to have a pad and pen handy to jot down the answers.  You might be surprised at what you discover!

If you are in a job you are good at but don’t love, here is a great question to ask: does being good in a job automatically mean that this is the job you should be doing?  Even if you don’t love it?  What if just because you are good at something, it doesn’t mean you should do it?  And more importantly, to borrow a line from my brilliant friend, best-selling career-coach Tama Kieves: what if you realized that since you are good at something you don’t love, you might just very well be great at something you do love?

Let’s take this a little further and ask just a few more questions:

  • What if you could take the talent you have, add your love and passion to it, and bring it whole-heartedly to something that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?
  • What if you could be supported financially, emotionally, and in every other way by a career that fits you like a glove?
  • What if you decided to take one small risk or action each day toward your big goal that fits perfectly with your passion and purpose?
  • What if you chose to make your dream a priority?  And you lived your life as if doing-what-you-love matters?
  • What if you loved your job so much it didn’t feel like a job?

How great would that feel?

So now, one more question: what one thing could you do today — right now — to help move you closer to living your dream?

Now, stop reading and go do that one thing…

Joel Fotinos is a vice-president at Penguin Random House, and publisher of the Tarcher/Penguin imprint.  He is a minster with the Centers for Spiritual Living, and author of several books, including his newest, My Life Contract: 90 Day Program for Prioritizing Goals, Staying on Track, Keeping Focused, and Getting Results (Hampton Roads).    www.joelfotinos.com


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