Your Life's Work is Waiting for You

As you consider the things you would like to change or accomplish in your life, a long list may come to mind. Since you are reading this, perhaps one of the most important is finding the career that's right for you. If you are a student, you'll need to take action to investigate your possibilities to make the most of the time and effort you are putting into your studies. If you are dissatisfied with your current work, you'll need to examine what you don't like about it, what you want, and what your options are. Either way, the person in charge of making this commitment is you! It can actually be a lot of fun if you are willing to put your very best into it.

Joseph Campbell said: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

Sometimes, when we see famous or accomplished people saying such things, we may feel the truth in the words, but might feel unable or unwilling to apply this truth to ourselves. Campbell is not saying there is an easy answer, or that it will be quick and painless. But he is pointing out a universal truth which reminds us that we would benefit from learning to be open to possibilities and ready for opportunities.

Ask yourself if you tend to think more in terms of possibilities or impossibilities with regard to what you can accomplish in life. How many times a day do you tell yourself something negative, even if only unconsciously? For most of us, there is room for improvement in the quality of the messages we feed ourselves. We can learn to make feeding ourselves positive messages and encouraging possibility thinking a regular part of our lives. It can’t be something we do only when we are having a particularly good day. Indeed, it is most needed and effective on those days when things are not going so well.

We must uphold our own highest ideals for ourselves and make the commitment to live by them. When making a transition in work, our results will benefit from persistent and positive belief in our own ability to—in the first place—find our right livelihood and then, having done so, to step up and make a difference doing the work we are meant to do.

Have you always had an idea of what you “should” be doing? Ask yourself why you are not doing it, and then see what you really think of your answers. Are your obstacles truly insurmountable, or will overcoming them merely demand, for example, more self-confidence or courage than you are accustomed to putting forth? Whatever your obstacles may be, if you have a strong desire to do something, several things will be true in any case…

What will happen if you do not take any action on your desire?

1. Time will pass
2. You will continue wishing or denying instead of finding out
3. You will continue feeling the same way about what you are doing
4. You will be waiting for someone or something else to change your scenario
5. Someone or something else will change your scenario (i.e., make the choices for you that you will not make for yourself)
6. You will continue to believe you can blame something or someone else for your circumstances
7. You will continue to deny the power of your desire in achieving your goals

What will happen if you begin to act into this desire?

1. Time will pass, but meanwhile revelations and progress are being made
2. You will find out if your desire is really the thing for you (even if it's not, you can eliminate it from your "maybe" list)
3. You start feeling different about what you are doing because it is no longer the only possibility you can see
4. Your scenario will begin to change to reflect the choices you are making
5. You will feel more aware of everything you already have going for you
6. You will learn the importance of making decisions and taking action, and become responsible for your own destiny in life
7. You will allow your desire to help you find your true self and your true work and, you will find that, as Joseph Campbell said: the life you ought to be living is the one you are living.

Whether you are a student exploring your career options for the first time, or a working person who fell into your current work and now want to take on the career exploration you couldn't do before, your life will be greatly enriched by your active commitment to the goal of finding the work you love. I'm here to support you in this aim. I welcome your phone calls and email inquiries, whether you are a career seeker, student, or concerned parent. Don't worry, act. It works!

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Resources:

Zen and the Art of Making a Living , a career seeker's "bible" by Laurence G. Boldt
How to Find the Work You Love , a concise career seeker's guide by Laurence G. Boldt
The Career Empowerment Program , a process for career discovery and development
The Creative Empowerment Program , to understand and apply the creative process
The Center for Creative Empowerment , website of Laurence Boldt, author and speaker
Career Seeker Resources , career research, job hunting, and organizational resources

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