Where to Now?

Principle five simply states:

You are inherently endowed with an ability to perform in an exceptional manner when you combine passion with your talents, abilities, and learning experiences.

One of the most important jobs in managing people is to determine what they are good at. So many people take jobs for which they are unsuited or have no interest. Then they wonder why they have no passion for their work or why it is so hard to go to work everyday. In truth, it is your responsibility to find your passion, not your boss. Remember, this series is about success and your role in it. Which is 100%, whether you accept it or not.

Soon someone at less than 100% begins complaining to others about their work situation, making mistakes, and finding everything about their work a problem or a burden; even showing up! If my message about responsiblity and accountability got through, then resolution begins by looking inside yourself rather than finding fault with the system you are in at present. Like my Mother used to say, "Birds of feather flock together." Meaning you are presently where you deserve to be with people who reflect your present state of mind!

Now I know this is hard to believe. I used to deny this to my mother until I took a hard look at the people I "hung out" with, what they talked about, and how accomplished they were. Not very impressive to say the least. Just being with them most of the time, listening to their insessant gossip, and blaming others for their demise, woke me up quicker than any seminar I could have attended. (Proving again, You can´t fool your mama!)

If I am speaking about you or someone you know then help is on the way. So where do you begin to get it together.

1. Write down all the things you really enjoy doing, computers, being with people, outdoors, working with your hands, creating new stuff, teaching, helping, etc. Write ten things from your heart, not your head.

2. Then write down all the skills you need or should know in order to maintain your "personal stock." Your personal stock is your value for employment based on what you know and can perform in an exceptional manner. Then get busy learning these regardless of your present situation, so you won´t have to fake your resume when you decide to move to another job!

3. Write ten skills, abilities, and learning experiences you have acquired or would be naturally-driven to learn. What are you good at, speaking, working with others, helping, creativity, software, writing, technical skills, etc. Don´t worry about writing a job description at this point.

4. Match what you enjoy with your skills, abilities, and experiences (1 and 3 above) and write a unique job description; whether that job presently exists or not.

5. Research where this job could be useful to an employer or start a new business. Use the internet to search or even market yourself! Be creative about promoting the truth about your abilities and skills.

6. Then go for it! Begin to market yourself while creating an honest job description. If you lie about what you can do, it will follow you and haunt you in your career; not to mention the guilt it might foster in you.

The bottom-line is you will never really be happy until you live your passion!