Photo courtesy of Kevin Dooley and Flickr
“Anything on earth you want to do is play. Anything on earth you have to do is work. Play will never kill you, work will. I never worked a day in my life.”
– Dr Leila Denmark (the USA’s oldest doctor)
I hope you’re having a peaceful and relaxing time over the holidays. At this time of year in particular, I often hear people saying things like, “I’d do what I love, if only I knew what it was” and “I’d do what I love, if only I knew how to do it.” So last week, I did a Facebook Live broadcast on my business page called “The 5 Paradoxical Clues To The Work You’re Here To Do”. People really loved it, so I thought I’d share the 5 paradoxical clues here in the JST over the next 5 weeks. So here’s the first clue:
Paradoxical Clue 1: You enjoy it – it’s fascinating to you
I was once being interviewed on the BBC, and I explained to the interviewer that everyone already knows (at least on some level) what they’d love to do. The interviewer challenged me, asking, “What about people who don’t know what they want to do?” I asked her for an example, and she said that she struggled with this herself. So I asked her a few “cheesy coaching questions”, for example…
– If you could wave a magic wand and have everything the way you want it to be, what would that look like?
– What would you want to do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
– What would you want to do if you knew it was OK to fail?
– What would you do if all work paid the same, and you could get whatever work you like?
– What would you want to do if you knew you were going to be happy, secure, successful and loved, whether it worked out or not?
– What would you want to do if you didn’t have to be unhappy about not doing it?
The BBC interviewer said, “I’d open a holistic therapy and wellbeing clinic.”
As you can imagine, I was a bit surprised, and I said, “Wow! Where did that come from?” She explained that she’d been being trained as a holistic therapist for years, and was completely fascinated with it, but she was afraid of ‘making the leap’ because it might not work out.
And this was when I realised something big. Saying, “I’d do what I love if I only knew what it was / knew how” is a lot more ‘socially acceptable’ than saying, “I’d do what I love if I wasn’t scared of failure and criticism.”
It’s not just easier to say to other people. It’s easier to say to yourself.
And this is where it gets paradoxical. The thing you turn out to *love* doing, may be something that you don’t know how to do yet, or even one that’s frightening to you at the moment.
Here’s an example: I LOVE public speaking. I enjoy it so much that I’d do it even if it wasn’t my profession. But here’s the thing:
I used to be terrified of public speaking. My legs would shake and my voice would tremble. The colour would drain from my face and my mouth would dry up.
When I first started realising the work I’m here to do, I had a sudden image of me speaking to hundreds of people, and it scared the hell out of me!
And that’s the paradox: While your greatest gift is going to be something you enjoy thoroughly… something that’s fascinating to you… something you’d do even if you weren’t getting paid for it…
You might start out being not very good at it, or even scared of doing it.
But that’s OK. The simple key is this: just take the next step. You don’t have to do th whole journey at once. One step at a time is just fine.
By the way, this Thursday at 7pm UK I’m doing a 90-minute LIVE masterclass called, “The Zero-risk Path to Doing Work You Love (without taking a pay cut)”
In this powerful free training session, I’ll be revealing the #1 reason most people fail to make the transition to doing work you love, and what you can do to change that for yourself in 2018.
>>> Register for “The Zero-risk Path to Doing Work You Love (without taking a pay cut)”
https://www.jamiesmart.com/transitionwebinar/
To your increasing clarity!
Big love
Jamie
Jamie Smart
Sunday Times Bestselling Author, Speaker and Executive Coach
PLUS: Whenever you’re ready… here are 3 ways I can help you get the clarity and results that matter to you:
1. Hire me to speak at your event
If you want an entertaining and impactful keynote speech or breakout session for your conference, offsite or town hall meeting, click here https://www.jamiesmart.com/book-jamie-to-speak-about/
2. Join the Transition Launchpad Group
Join The Transition Launchpad Facebook community, all about making the transition from full-time employment to doing something more fulfilling and on-purpose for you. You can join for free at https://www.facebook.com/groups/transitionlaunchpad/
3. Join the next intake of Project Jupiter
If you want to transition from full-time employment to something more fulfilling and on-purpose for you, you may be a good fit for the next intake of Project Jupiter (starting January 2018). Here’s how you’ll know if you’re right for Jupiter (and vice-versa):
– You are currently in full-time employment, but…
– You want to transition from your job to something more fulfilling and “on-purpose”
– You sense that it’ll probably take 1-3 years to complete the transition, but…
– Your goal hasn’t been getting much closer; it seems to stay the same distance away
– You want to make progress, but lack clarity about either the ‘what’ or the ‘how’
– You know that if you were clear on those, with a solid plan, you’d do what it takes to make it happen
– You’ve been thinking about it for long enough, and you’re ready to do something about it NOW
If that’s you, email Nikki at info@jamiesmart.com and type “Project Jupiter” in the subject line.
PLUS: check these out :
Get your free Profitable Coaches Scorecard book www.JamieSmart.com/scorecard
Listen to the Results Mindset Podcast www.JamieSmart.com/resultspodcast
Listen to The Profitable Coaches Podcast www.JamieSmart.com/pcp
Read the first 2 chapters of my Sunday Times Bestseller RESULTS: Think Less, Achieve More www.JamieSmart.com/instantresults