Why do you choose to get out of bed in the morning?
You may do it because of:
> Love
> Habit
> Fear
> Excitement
> Obligation
> Dedication
Whatever gets you out of bed, it’s enough to keep you moving forward. At what point do you ask yourself…
Am I happy with my career?
This is the question that we all ask ourselves, but we often don’t take the time to figure out the answer. It’s just easier to keep doing the same boring stuff. Why put pressure on ourselves to change when we aren’t sure what will make us happy?
This is the type of thinking that prevents a person from moving forward.
You have an opportunity to create the career that will make you happy if you start right now.
1. Develop Your Superpowers
You may have been writing a while or photographing since you were little, but you haven’t been able to use these skills at your job. No more. You have to find a way to use the skills that you’ve developed over the past years.
These skills will help you shine at work. If you are too busy with mind numbing work – stop it. You must cut out that stuff because it’s not getting you any closer to your goals. If you really want to tread water and wait for someone to save you, go right ahead. But if you want to improve your career and find more engaging work, you have to use your superpowers every single day.
2. Understand Your Needs
If you aren’t happy at work then you aren’t getting your needs met. This can be tricky because our needs are always changing and sometimes the needs we think will make us happy won’t. The idea is to make the best guess of what makes you happy and figure out how to get these needs met at work.
3. Match Your Strengths with Your Passions
Your strength may be writing, but you don’t love to write. This happens all the time. You have to blend your strengths with your passions so you can do great work that gets you motivated.
Maybe you like to speak to get your point across. Then use this strength to help you do more of the work that matters to you.
4. Start Today
Instead of waiting around expecting someone to notice, take charge and do the work. If you do a great job, your clients/co-workers/boss will want you to do more of this amazing work because they see great results.
5. Fail Fast
If you think you are great at planning meetings but something always seems to go wrong, then maybe it’s time to accept that this is a passion of yours but not a superpower.
6. Adjust Course
You can’t be good at everything. You can’t be passionate about everything. When you fail at something, leave it behind and adjust. Figure out what makes you a Linchpin (Amazon affiliate link) within your work. When you do great work, it gives you more leverage to do work that excites you.
7. Work Through the Dip
Every job has its grind. We can’t all jump into the CEO seat and run things. We need to put in our time and work on our skills. Just because you have a string of bad days, don’t let this throw you off course. Keep working hard and you will develop skills that you never realized you had. These skills will bring new possibilities into your career.
Karl,
The idea of understanding our needs…is so important. And it’s one that so worth revisiting regularly – to really feel any shifts that are taking place. And that word “superpower” is so fitting – when we hit that sweet spot…it truly can become a superpower!
Hi Karl,
I wrote in my manuscript that the only super powers I had as a kid was to interest old ladies and dogs. I still have that power, the rest is passion and hard work. I like the fail fast point. I see lots of people doing what they shouldn’t be; they just won’t let go. Cheers, Simon.
Karl,
As I read through, I think these tips are awe-some for anything we approach in life, not only our career.
I do have to understand myself, my needs, my passion, my skills–so that I may make the best choices possible throughout my work day. I understand that my work day will flow smoothly and even be fun if I am in the correct position using my skills in the most fulfilling way. And I like the “fail fast” tip–I am not less because there is something I do not excel at, there is plenty that I do excel at so I shall concentrate my energy on that!
Hi Karl
Number 3 really stands out for me – to match our strengths with our passions. I think this is something that puts one in perfect alignment with their own unique path.
And in the end, it is a constant re-evaluation, for as we change and grow, so do our passions and strengths 🙂
Hi Karl,
What a great post. I suspect that for many people, they prefer not to see failure as an option at all–and that aversion to failing, for whatever reason is just not on. They’d rather avoid taking a risk (even a well thought out one with safety securely in place) than fall flat on their face testing out whether their passions are also strengths Let’s face it, we don’t exactly live in a culture that honours, celebrates, or talks about failures along the way to success. To the contrary, mistakes and failures are derided rather than used as gentle lessons in examining what didn’t works so well and why. Unfortunately while many would “rather die than risk failure”, they are doing exactly that (dying) at a spiritual level. It’s definitely time to overturn this kind of thinking and encourage more people to live more fully.
Have a great day, everyone.
Passions are the key to how we grow our strengths. I see some people chase their strength, but without the passion it fizzles. The sweet spot is the intersection.
Hi Karl — I’m definitely all for refusing to wait around to be noticed. I’m seriously leaning toward just going ahead and self-publishing my second book, which is going to be a response to some of the criticisms of the self-help genre, rather than waiting for years to build up a “platform” for the book and begging the publishing bigwigs for attention. 🙂
Hi Karl,
For me it’s work through the dip! Augghhh! That’s where I’m stuck right now. So I’m working through it and need your help. I just send an email. Any help will be appreciated.
Grateful you’re in my life;)
Tess
Hi Lance, It’s surprising how long this took to sink in. I didn’t pay attention to the shifts and missed out on a huge part of my growth. Now I’m learning to hit that sweet spot more often.
Hi Simon, That’s funny. Don’t knock such a great superpower. There have been many successful people who make a lot of money from catering to these two groups. 😉
Hi Joy, Great attitude. You have to concentrate on your superpowers because that’s where you’ll get the best bang for your time.
Hi Evita, This also took me awhile too. I loved writing and had trouble figuring out the best way to use it to help me with what I’m passionate about. Now I’m clicking and loving every minute of it.
Hi Sue, We do need to be more willing to celebrate failure. It’s the best tool to teach success. Too many books talk about what companies have done right and not about the mistakes that they fixed. Hmmm, that might be a really good book.
Hi J.D., A person needs a combination of both. I like how you put it. The person just fizzles out because there wasn’t any intrinsic motivation.
Hi Chris, I think you should. I would love to read it when you do.
Hi Tess, Since we just scheduled a coaching call I will help. Very much looking forward to it.
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