I was getting ready to head out the door and my son, who was two at the time, said to me, “Daddy, where you going?”

“To work,” I replied.

“Why?”

I stopped and thought about it for a moment, trying to come up with an explanation a two year old could understand.

Trying to think of all the possible responses I could come up with, I said, “to help people.”

Now, my two year old asked the question of why to just about everything, but this time his question really got me thinking.

Why do we work?

Certainly, at its most basic form, we work to bring in income.

But don’t we work for more than that?

Maybe we also work to feel productive, contribute to society, feel like our lives matter, or express our talents and gifts.

Maybe all of the above.

While paying our bills is a legitimate reason to work, there is often a deeper reason we want to work.

The Big Mistake

The biggest mistake we make in our careers is to believe our work is about us.

When our work is only serving our own needs it becomes selfish, shallow, and boring.

Our work can often be a wonderful place to use and exhibit our talents and gifts, yet there is a condition.

Our talents and gifts weren’t given to us for admiration or self-actualization, they were given to serve others.

When we switch the focus of our work to serving the needs of others, it takes our work to another level – a more sublime level.

So if you’ve struggled with finding work you like, maybe try looking at your work from another angle.

Who do you want to serve?

Your answer to that question will tell you why you work.

Question: Who do you want to serve with your talents and gifts?

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?

Victor Bezrukov via Compfight

Then your immediate response was something like, “oh thank you, but it really wasn’t anything special.”

I know I’ve certainly responded that way at times.

In addition to maybe some false humility, I responded this way because I was unaware of my strengths.

Many of us are unaware of our strengths and what we do well.

This could be due to a variety of factors, but one factor I’m sure of is the influence of our culture’s focus on improving our weaknesses.

We have been told from a very young age to work on making our weaknesses better.

In elementary school through high school what gets circled or checked off on a test? The incorrect answers.

What happens when a child gets a low grade in one or more subjects? Parents pay for tutoring in that subject.

What do many employers focus on during performance reviews? Opportunities for growth (a.k.a. getting better at weaknesses).

I thought this was just the way it was – a necessary evil. You work on some weak area in order to bring it up to par with the areas where you’re doing well.

You’ll be on your way to a happy, healthy, “well-rounded” life.

Then I read Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath.

Through the research done by the Gallup organization, Rath found that people who have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times more likely to enjoy their jobs and more than three times as likely to report they have an excellent quality of life in general.

That’s amazing, especially in light of our culture’s obsession with improving weaknesses.

Admittedly when I first took the Strengthsfinder 2.0 I really liked it and found it fascinating. However, I read my top five strengths, agreed that I’m generally good in those areas, and didn’t look at them again for a couple of years.

Now, I just recently printed out my top five strengths and taped them to the wall in my office where I will see them every day. When I’m faced with a decision about a career opportunity to pursue I check it against my strengths to make sure I would be honoring those areas.

My top five strengths are:

1. Learner – People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

2. Context – People who are especially talented in the Context theme enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.

3. Belief – People who are especially talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.

4. Responsibility – People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

5. Consistency – People who are especially talented in the Consistency theme are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. They try to treat everyone in the world with consistency by setting up clear rules and adhering to them.

What about you? What are you strengths? Are you able to focus on your strengths every day in your work?

You can begin operating in your strengths in your work by taking these three steps:

1. Buy the Strengthsfinder 2.0 book, read it, and take the test.

2. Check your top five strengths against your current job. How do the responsibilities of your job compare to your strengths? Are you utilizing your best talents everyday?

3. Develop an action plan to maximize your strengths in your current job. Or find another opportunity that is more in alignment with your strengths.

The more you know about yourself and what you do well you will be able to make better informed decisions. Which will in turn provide you with more opportunities to be intentional about your life and career.

Question: If you’ve taken the Strengthsfinder 2.0 what are your strengths? If you haven’t taken it, what questions do you have about the instrument?

I mean we spend so much time with ourselves you’d think we would have this down right?

hobvias sudoneighm via Compfight

Yet, it’s not easy. At least it wasn’t for me.

It’s also the number one reason people contact me. They’re stuck in some way.

It can be a complex problem to navigate because we as humans are complex.

The underlying cause for the problem can be a variety of different things:

• Perfectionism
• Difficulty choosing just one idea
• Truly not knowing
• Fear

You may have a different reason, but these tend to be the ones I hear.

Whatever your log jam is try one of these exercises to get you moving in the right direction to the work you love.

1. Three Movie Exercise. Mary DeMuth talks about doing this with groups she works with. I love this idea. Without thinking too much, list three of your favorite movies. Here are three of mine:

• Field of Dreams
• Brave Heart
• The Natural

Now, think about an underlying theme that runs through each of your favorite movies.

The theme that runs through my favorites (besides baseball for two of them) is believing you can achieve your dream or goal when no one else believes you can.

This theme will likely be what you are passionate about. Try it, you’ll have some fun and you’ll be amazed at what you come up with.

I’d love for you to share your three movies and the common theme in the comments below.

2. Have a “Choose Your Career” BBQ. I mention this exercise in my ebook “5 Steps to Landing Your Dream Job”. Essentially, it goes like this:

1. Invite your closest friends over for a BBQ
2. Ask them to tell you what they think it is you might love to do.
3. Brainstorm with them 100 types of careers that might fit what you do well.
4. When your friends leave, sort through their ideas and choose 20 that strike a chord with you.
5. Start researching more information about your top 5 from the 20.

Question: What are your three movies and the common theme?

(Consider adding a comment below.)

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You see your inner Superman shows up sometime after 5pm and on the weekends. Superman has a fantastic time doing everything else except what happens at the office. The other problem is Clark doesn’t believe he could be Superman all the time.  “No one can feel like Superman at work,” he says. “Everybody knows you can’t make a living being Superman,” says Clark.

What if you were able to dash to a phone booth, tear your Clark Kent glasses off and pull your button up collared shirt apart to reveal your Superman logo at work?  You can.  The first step is to have a sit down with your Superman.  Ask your Superman what he was doing when he felt like a million bucks the other day.  Ask him what he was doing when he lost track of time because he was thoroughly enjoying himself.  That’s your clue to finding the kind of work you want to do and the work you will enjoy.

You say but what if my Superman work doesn’t pay?  I mean, come on, nobody would pay to watch me play golf right?  Well, I’ve seen your golf scores and you’re right nobody will pay to watch you golf.  But would they pay you to design a golf club? Would they pay you to own a store that carries golf equipment?  Would they pay you to sell golf accessories to retailers?  The list can go on and on of things to do associated with golf that you can make a living doing.  So the next question is, why aren’t you making some movement toward being Superman all the time instead of only on evenings and weekends?

What is your Superman work?