Davide Cassanello via Compfight

For example, it may be they are trying to do well as an engineer when they are more gifted at sales.

Or they think they might be a good accountant when they are more talented in teaching others.

Other times people believe they can do well in any job regardless of the skills required to excel in that job. As long as the job is a “promotion” they want the job.

The problem is we try to make ourselves good at something God did not design us to do well. Part of this is the value we place on certain types of work or certain skills. We would rather be a mediocre attorney than an exceptional plumber.

This can come from family pressure, societal pressure, or a host of other influences that shape our thinking about the value of certain types of work.

The key to overcoming this sort of thinking is to focus on the special skills, talents, and abilities you have rather than trying to shoe horn ourselves into a particular role.

Work that is out of alignment with your best skills and abilities will eventually be unfulfilling and you’ll never experience the level of success in a job you otherwise would have.

This quote attributed to Albert Einstein sums up what will happen:

“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

We certainly don’t want that, so take some time to inventory what you do well – maybe better than anyone you know.

Ask yourself what special skills and natural abilities has God given you? What desires keep coming up in your heart of hearts? Do you find yourself most attracted to working with people, things, or data? Do you like to create something new or use an established method to solve a problem?

It can be difficulty to view our career choices without the filter of our family, culture, religion, or philosophical viewpoints.

But what if no one was watching? What if you could be a florist and no one cared? What if you could sell your drawings on ebay and no one would think you’re crazy?

What possibilities would that open up for your work and your life?

Question: Imagine you wake up tomorrow and you were doing work that was an absolute perfect fit with your best skills and abilities. What would be the first thing you notice that’s different for you?

All I knew was that I liked being able to get out of school to go to a nice hotel with free pastries for a day of peer counselor training.

It turned out the training helped us learn some skills to counsel other kids who were dealing with problems they didn’t want to talk about with adults.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would be the spark that made me aware of my ability to counsel others and help them solve their problems.

I wish I could say I realized my life’s passion at that moment and everything was downhill from that point. Not so much.

However, being encouraged to use some skills I had never tried before would allow me to explore skills that were linked to my eventual passion.

From that time until now I’ve discovered you need three kinds of skills in order to love your work.

1. Skills you enjoy using. What kinds of tasks do you enjoy? Personally, I don’t enjoy fixing things around the house. If something breaks and I have to get my toolbox my wife gets nervous. (She calls me Cliff Huxtable) However, I love to write about careers and helping people do work they love. Two different skill sets and two different levels of enjoyment. If you don’t enjoy using a particular skill, even if you’re good at it, you’ll still be off the mark in regard to your ideal career.

2. Skills you are competent in using. This past winter our shower was having problems and I tried to fix it. I ended up spending two hours on something that would have probably taken a plumber five minutes to fix. I was soaking wet and frustrated beyond belief. Needless to say I’m not very good with my hands. In order to enjoy a skill you usually need to be fairly competent in using that skill.

3. Skills that are marketable. You can be good at something and you can enjoy doing it, but you must have a customer for that skill. Whether that customer is an employer or someone who purchases directly from you there must be a market for what you provide with your skills.

Be aware that if you only have two of the three components you will still be out of alignment with your ideal career. You must have a combination of all three.

When you find the sweet spot that combines all three components you will experience work that is rewarding and enjoyable. Something very few experience today.

Question: Do you have all three components in your current work? If not, what could you do to get all three?

In high school Gary was always in the auto shop classroom and never in the library. He was that guy.

Yasser Alghofily via Compfight

However, when the time came he thought he needed to go to college in order to get a good job.

He went through college hating every minute of it, wishing he could spend more time refurbishing the 1969 Chevy pickup waiting in the garage at home.

After graduating from college with a low GPA and a headache, Gary went looking for a job.

With no real direction, Gary took the first job he could get because he knew somebody who worked there and they got him the job.

Gary was pretty miserable most days. Working in a cubicle, sitting in front of a computer screen, and doing work that he was not designed to do well.

The trouble was Gary couldn’t see a way out. He thought he was on a career path for life and there were no exit doors.

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, this is an all too common way to choose the type of work we do.

For those who don’t like what they do I’ve noticed three typical factors in how they chose their work.

• They chose work that just pays the bills and didn’t think about whether or not they liked it.  
• They chose work they thought they might be good at or other people told them they were good at doing. 
• They chose work based on the kinds of work models and industries they were exposed to and were easily available to them (i.e. corporate employee, government, manufacturing, agricultural, self-employment, etc.) 

The problem is we often choose a career based on short term needs and overlook our ability to be intentional about our careers. Trust me, I know supporting ourselves and/or a family are absolutely important needs – short term or not.

However, when it’s time to make decisions about the type of work we want, we have the pressure of short term needs combined with the lack of personal insight needed to be intentional about our career.

Like Gary, we can feel stuck in a job or career path with no hope of something better. So what do we do?

If you’re in this situation I encourage you to look at your current work as a stepping stone to something greater.

The work you hate now could be planting a seed that will blossom into enjoyable work in the future.

Take this time to look inward at who you are and pay attention to what you’ve learned about yourself with your current work situation.

You may have only discovered what you don’t like, but that is part of the process of finding your passion and ultimately finding work you love.

Gary’s now working toward moving into a career he will love. He’s grown a lot and he is more sure of what he wants to do every day. And yes you guessed it, he’ll be working with cars.

Question: How do you think most people choose their careers?

[box type=”shadow”] If You Feel Like Gary Try This Exercise: 

Write down ten things you’ve learned about yourself as a result of doing the work you’re doing now? Then go through your career history and do this for each job you’ve held.

• What types of activities energized you?
• Which activities drained you?
• What is something you’re really proud of accomplishing in your work thus far?
• Was there a time when you failed in your work? What lessons did you learn from that? [/box]

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Ultimately, choosing a career direction comes down to one thing.

Photo Credit: hobvias sudoneighm

What do you want to do?

That’s it.

You can take all the personality assessments in the world, go through tons of exercises, and work with coaches.

However, when all is said and done you have to make a choice and move toward a goal.

You may say, “but I still don’t know what I want to do”.

That may be, however, my hunch is you actually have some ideas but you’re talking yourself out of them.

These are what Howard Figlar calls your “yes, buts”.

Yes, I’d really like to do X but you see I can’t because…

The challenge is your “yes, buts” may be very legitamate.

You may have some major obstacles in your path to doing what you love to do.

Yet at some point, you need to take your “yes, buts” out, dust them off, look at them, set them on the shelf, and make a decision to find solutions to overcome them..

Sometimes your “yes, buts” have been so scary you never wanted to look at them.

I would encourage you to not only look at them but examine them to their fullest extent.

Feel the fear.

Then start doing two things.

1) Get more information on your problem. Let’s say you want to be a dentist but you don’t know how you’ll feed your family while you spend years in dental school and not go into a mountain of debt. You’re not the first person to ever face this dilemma. Find a dentist who had the same problem but overcame it. They are out there. It may take some work, but you’ll find someone you can talk to and ask how they did it. This goes for pretty much every type of career and situation you can think of.

2) Create solutions and implement them. In the previous example you may have found someone who was in the exact same position you are in now. You may discover there are certain dental schools where you can go part-time while you work or schools that offer financial assistance. Maybe you’ll need to move to a cheaper place to live for a time. Maybe you’ll decide to save up for dental school and go in 5 years. I don’t know.

It really boils down to asking yourself how bad you want something, what creative solutions will help you get there, and what cost are you willing to pay?

Nobody said this would be easy.

But you can do this.

We live in a wonderful nation. Full of freedom and opportunities.

The solutions are there if you look hard enough.

Use your creativity and your enthusiasm for a new career in this process.

Can you see it?

You’ll get there and you’ll love it.

Question: Have you ever found a solution to an obstacle in your life you never thought you’d figure out?

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Do I go to Starbucks or Peete’s?

Should I wear the blue shirt or the green shirt?

 Photo Credit: Julia Manzerova via Compfight

What about big decisions?

Decisions that have some weight to them.

Should I choose this school or that one?

Should I choose this job or that one?

We often have multiple good options to choose from.

Which is the best one?

I’m teaching a class on critical thinking next week and I want to share with you one of the tools I cover.

This tool can help us make better decisions with those bigger dilemmas we face.

You can use this tool for a variety of decisions from choosing vacation spots, to vacuum brands, to choosing the type of work you might enjoy.

The tool is called a Grid Analysis Worksheet.

Here’s how it works:

1. List all your options as row labels on the table. For example, if you are trying to choose     between laptop brands you may list Apple, Dell, Toshiba, etc.

2. List all your factors, or criteria, as column headings. Using the laptop example, factors to consider might be cost, speed, hard disk size, etc.

3. Next, give each of your factors a weight on the row labeled “Weights”. Give them a weight from 0 (no importance) to 5 (extremely important) depending on how important each factor is to you. For example, cost may be a 5, speed may be a 3, and hard disk size may be a 0. Note multiple factors can have the same weight.

4. Next, work you way across the table rows, scoring each option on each factor. Score each factor from 0 (poor) to 3 (very good). Note you don’t need to have a different score for each factor. You can score all of your options as 0 if none of them are good for a particular factor. For example, Apple may be a 0 for cost, a 3 for speed, and a 3 for hard disk size.

5. Now multiply each of the scores for your options by the weights you gave each of your factors. For example, if you gave Apple a 3 for speed you will multiple 3 by the weight you gave the factor of speed. In this case you gave speed a weight of 3. So you would multiple 3 by 3 to get a score of 9.

6. Lastly, add up the scores for each of your factors for each option. The option that scores the highest is the option you may want to consider.

If I haven’t completely lost you at this point, I hope you try using the Grid Analysis Worksheet with your next big decision. You’ll be surprised how much more confident you’ll feel about your decision when you’ve run your options through this exercise. Let me know if you try it and how it works out. I’d love to hear from you.

Question: How might you use this tool for a decision you have to make?

(Add your comment below.)

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You hate your job but right now it’s the only thing standing between you and the homeless shelter downtown.

Photo Credit: net_efekt via Compfight

You park your car, turn off the ignition and you begin to feel the zest for life being slowly drained from your inner being. Like bathwater after you pull the plug from the drain.

Sound familiar?

I hope not. However, I’m afraid it’s an all too common occurrence.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help yourself get through the day.

Here are six ways to survive your work day when you hate your job:

1. Know you’re not alone. The majority of American workers don’t like their jobs. According to a recent Gallup poll seventy-one percent of workers are disengaged with their jobs (HR translation: disengaged = hate their jobs). Seventy-one percent! This means when you get together with nine of your friends the odds are six of them hate their jobs too. For some reason it helps to know this.

2. Go outside. If your work environment allows you to take a break outside, do it. Something about being outside helps to calm us down. Take a walk down the street and back. If you already work outside, well, I’m not sure. Maybe go inside. The point is to change your environment even if it is only for a moment.

3. Have a friend at work. Research and polls have found those who have at least one friend at work will find their work more interesting. I must admit I’m lousy at this but I’ve seen it in action. I also think women are better at this than men (in my experience). Those who have a friend or friends at work have a built in support system every time they go to work.

4. Schedule some quiet time. I once coached a client who found he could change his attitude toward his job by scheduling times to get out of his cube. This client would take his laptop and go to the cafeteria to work and would avoid the constant interruptions associated with cube life. If you don’t have the luxury of leaving your workspace you may have to get creative. Put up caution tape around your work area, hang a sign on your back that says, “Do I look like a people person to you?” I don’t know, but do something to give yourself some much needed quiet time at work.

5. Focus on the future. This is the key to everything mentioned above. None of this will ultimately solve the root of your problem. It’s only a band aid. If you truly hate your job then you must start searching for another job or become self-employed. You can survive your workday if you know it’s only a matter of time until you’re on your way somewhere else.

6. Fake it. It does you no good to mope around co-workers. Unless they are your friend, they don’t care. They probably feel the same way. Your boss doesn’t want to see your sad face either. You’re not a victim. Remember, you make a choice every day to go to work or not. You are in control of your attitude. Smile, you’ll be surprised how it will help you survive your workday.

Now when you get to work you will at least have a plan. You may still hate your job, but you’re in control (at least a little more). Remember, this is only temporary. You’re working toward getting a new job or a new career you enjoy.

Question: What other tips do you have for surviving the day in a job you hate?

(Leave your comment below.)

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You went to school, got a job with a good company, and set yourself on a career path your parents would be proud of.

Photo Credit: Zach Klein via Compfight

Or maybe you just took the first job you could find because those student loans were coming due.

Either way, you took a job and now you hate it.

You wonder how this happened. How did you end up doing something every day that sucks the zest for life out of you?

The problem is you don’t know what to do. You don’t know what else you want to do. Even if you did know, you don’t know how to get there.

The good news is there is hope.

This problem can be resolved by doing some real soul searching and assessing three major areas in your life.

Area 1: Your Strengths and Personality

Who are you? What are you good at? If you answer those two questions accurately more than half the battle will be won. Fortunately you don’t have to figure this out on your own. There are a number of resources to help you answer these questions.

One very good and inexpensive way to determine your strengths is to use the Strengthsfinder 2.0 (not an affiliate link) assessment.

Another more comprehensive tool you can use is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI is the most reliable and validated personality assessment on the market. Most Fortune 500 companies provide the MBTI to their employees and I provide the MBTI to all of my coaching clients. I highly recommend it.

Area 2: Skills and Abilities

By the time you are 25 you have likely used hundreds of different types of skills to accomplish something. What have you noticed you are particularly good at doing? Which skills do you enjoy using the most? Is there something you would like to be able to do but have not tried?

However, just because you may be good at something doesn’t necessarily mean you enjoy using that skill. You’ll know you’re on the right career track when you find a skill you also enjoy using.

Area 3: Values, Interests, and Dreams

What is important to you? What do you find yourself doing during your non-work hours?

Some may ask you what your passion is. I say rather than search for the holy grail of passion, take a look at what you are already doing. What types of things do you find yourself drawn toward? Do you enjoy backpacking, blogging, kayaking, data analysis, talking to people, etc. Your interests are the seeds to discovering the kind of thing you would enjoy being paid to do.

Also, when we’re seven years old it’s Ok to say you want to be an astronaut but when we grow up we forget to continue dreaming. You need to tap into your inner seven year old.

What do you find yourself dreaming about during the day? Even if you think it would be irresponsible and impossible to do, the key is to allow yourself the freedom to dream about the job and the life you want.

When you put all of these components together, you should have a pretty good idea of what you would rather be doing. The next step is putting together a plan to get to where you want to go.

You’ll be saying sayonara to that job you hate in no time.

Question: When you were seven years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

(If you liked the post [or not] leave a comment below. You’ll get a response from me.)

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Matt Costa is known for his organic sound driven mainly by guitars and percussion. His unique vocals add an almost raw quality to his music. As if he created all his songs sitting on his back porch hanging out with some friends.

Matt Costa has released three albums and two EPs.

Matt Costa EP (2003)
The Elasmosaurus EP (2004)
Songs We Sing (2005)
Unfamiliar Faces (2008)
Mobile Chateau (2010)

Some of my favorite Matt Costa songs to work by are “Cold December” and “Sunshine” from his “Songs We Sing” album. From his “Unfamiliar Faces” album I really like “Lilacs”, “Emergency Call”, “Vienna”, “Never Looking Back”, and “Mr. Pitiful.” If you haven’t heard Matt Costa before take a moment and watch the video for “Mr. Pitiful” below.

So next time you’re looking for something to listen to while you work, check out Matt Costa. What do you listen to while you work?

Doing non-creative work you don’t enjoy. 

I ordered lunch the other day and one of the servers preparing my chicken sandwich muttered under his breath, “I guess this is what I get for being a history major.”

He went on to explain his frustration with his job and how he was dying to do something different and more creative.

It’s an all too common story. Feeling stuck in a job and settling for work that sucks the zest for life right out of us.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In fact, now more than ever, we need you to do work you love to do and express your creative genius. Here are 3 reasons we need you to unleash your creativity in your work:

This is an excerpt of a guest post I wrote for Jeff Goins’ blog. To read the entire post go here.

The best way to open this post would be to have a meaningful story about how my ebook 5 Essential Steps to Landing Your Dream Job was inspired by the night I couldn’t sleep so I watched the J.K. Rowling episode on the Biography channel when she goes back to the apartment where she lived pre Harry Potter and breaks down in tears as she ponders how far she has come. I stayed up all night, wrote my manifesto then looked around my house and thought, “I wonder how my sunshine yellow walls will look on the Biography channel someday?” However, I’m afraid I don’t have a meaningful story like that to draw you in.

Sure, I went through a fairly dramatic and traumatic career change, sold my house, moved in with my in-laws, started a business, dissolved a business, quit three jobs in one year and eventually found my way again. But those stories will have to wait.

Right now all I have is shameless self-promotion and a passion to help you with your career journey so you enjoy what you do for work every day.

My ebook 5 Essential Steps to Landing Your Dream Job is available for free download when you sign up for my newsletter. So if you’ve ever asked yourself the following questions this ebook might be helpful for you:

What do I want to be when I grow up?
Which kinds of careers will I find meaningful?
How do I get through the job search process?

If you download the ebook please email me your feedback on the book or leave a comment below. I’d love to know what you think, good or bad.

Oh, one last thing. What types of topics related to the world of work and your career would you like to see featured on my blog?

Comment below. Thanks!