T.A.P. Q#367 – I Have a Passion for NOTHING

Tests are useful tools yet can't tell you what to do with your life or what job will be right for you. The seeds of your "right fit" work lie in those activities you have loved throughout your life, and the things you are proud of doing. There are threads running through our lives - things we return to, ways we often behave, people we feel comfortable with, situations that make us happy. A test can point the way to those things, and then it's up to us to actively explore the experiences we remember. What did I do? Say? What were the circumstances? What was the core challenge I met or resolved? Who was I doing it with? How did I approach the situation? What skills was I using? The seeds of our "right fit" work lie in those experiences.

For example, I remember feeling so happy when a staff person moved up in the organization in part because I coached him on how to approach his job and helped him identify what he really loved doing in his job. When I was ready to switch careers myself, I remembered that and other examples of how my coaching helped someone find what they love to do and then move toward that. And I did it so often - it was just something I did naturally, and got such pleasure from. So career coaching was a no-brainer for me.

I heard a story the other day about a guy who said the only thing he liked doing was sleeping "and you can't get a job doing that!" It turns out that with some coaching he turned his love of sleeping into a gig staying at great hotels and evaluating his stay. He wrote reviews and posted them on a website. Essentially he gets paid for sleeping. Yes, he uses other skills, and perhaps those are more of a stretch than simply sleeping. The point is that anything you like doing can become a way for you to make money.

Maybe you don't want a job and instead you want to start your own business. Again, you'll need to zero in on what you love to do. If you love to do it and it doesn't feel like work, excellent! I believe in work that is fun, fulfilling, and effortless - work that energizes me and gives me the willingness to do the things that aren't so fun.

Sometimes I find that people need to adjust their expectations of how things happen. Many clients want to get that "right fit" job immediately or have a million-dollar business tomorrow, or at latest this year. It's going to take some time and taking steps that feel like you are inching along. I wrote a book that is free to readers of careerealism.com on Your Right Fit Job - it took me over a year to write it. I did it one piece at a time, and gradually it came together. Similarly, there are steps to identifying what you love to do and then getting a job to do it.

Finally, nothing beats experience. When you actually work at a job, you get a visceral understanding of what you like and don't like doing. Usually, people don't find their ideal job early in their career - there are exceptions, of course, usually people who are clear about what they love. For the rest of us mortals, it takes a little time and experience to become clear. I call it "information-gathering."

You've already started that process. Now it may be time to go ahead and apply for some jobs. That will reveal more information to you, about what you really like and maybe what your fears are that are masquerading as boredom.

Lack of passion and distaste for work are not your enemies. Only your attachment to them is.

Like fear, "it's all in your head"; thus, the good news is ... YOU HAVE CONTROL OVER IT. So, you can either focus on your 'lack of passion and distaste for work' as if they're all inclusive in your life, OR ... you can try and visit a new paradigm: What it may be that you enjoy to some degree ... to ANY DEGREE. I've included an article to help.

The article is not focused on "how to start to like work" or "how to loose distaste for work" or "how to find a passion". It is focused instead on helping you to decide what you enjoy most to least but 'enjoy' nonetheless. It is the first step to turning this around - and is effective at ANY stage or age in one's career. Read on ... http://bit.ly/3diKGM

Hope this helps!

YT,

Rob Taub of Job Search Corner www.JobSearchCorner.com
and "Job Searching with Rob" http://bit.ly/18wCkO