This is an awesome kaleidoscope of audacity, inventiveness, reinvention, contribution, expression, collaboration, energy and living honestly. Not to mention STAGGERING talent. I dare you not to be inspired.
Ok, so here’s an insight from the left field. I bought some organic radish sprouts yesterday- never come across them before and thought I’d give them a whirl. There’s only so much alfalfa a girl can handle. And no, you haven’t accidentally subscribed to the Wheatgrass Blog!
What struck me was this…
These little infant sprouts tasted, well, so radishy…. such tiny germinating seeds so bursting with radishness there was no escaping what they were going to grow up to be. They tasted so genetically CONFIDENT of their latent identity.
This is what we are like. We are all born genetically predisposed a certain way, hard wired to be good at certain things (often many things!). Some of us know it. These are the enviable(aka annoying!) people who know from day one that they are going to be a performer or an architect or a plumber and they go ahead and do just that. There are those more fallible humans amongst us who rediscover it along the way after a few false starts. And there are those who forget, or lose sight of it altogether, remaining stuck in a job they just don’t enjoy.
Genes are made of resilient stuff though – the whole theory of evolution rests on genes wanting to express and develop themselves – so they don’t take kindly to being ignored! Which is one of the reasons why we always know when we are in the wrong job, or aren’t expressing our potential or are off track. It’s a a safety catch to ensure you don’t spend your life doing something you don’t want to do.
But often we feel we don’t know what we are good at or what we could do or where to begin or we are too busy surviving, or making excuses, or feeling like it’s all too impossible to find a way to express ourselves in both material and rewarding ways.
Here’s the thing – we have great clues to ourselves in our own naturalness. So forget your inner child. Find your inner radish!!
If you watched the fascinating clip from the last post all the way to the end (and if you haven’t I recommend you do, it poses some interesting ideas and is great to watch) – here’s what you would have seen: when there is a transcendent purpose to what we do it makes coming to work better. Infact it can make coming to work GREAT!
Unsurprisingly then there are few things more soul destroying than doing a job that really means nothing. There are only so many email backlogs, ill planned projects, ceaseless targets and endless meetings that the human soul can tolerate. Sooner or later we cry out – “I’ve had enough, I’m off.”
This doesn’t mean that we are a generation of must-have-it-alls. On the contrary – we’re wiling to slog our guts out, put up with office politics and the armpit on the tube, if it MEANS SOMETHING at the end of the day. What we are increasingly unwilling to do is to slave for a huge corporate machine unless the huge corporate machine has a heart. That doesn’t imply that purpose must be something exalted or grand or that we are all apprentice Mother Teresa’s. Let’s face it the world would be a very dull place if we were all to try and save it. The clip talks about Skypes purpose to be disruptive but in the cause of making the world a better place. And Steve Job’s to bring a ‘ding’ to the universe.
The point is that just by doing something that means something to us whatever that is, that makes sense to us, that uses our talents, that we ENJOY – it feels good. A nd when it doesn’t it feels.. well purposeless and pointless and often bad. And here’s a thing – purposeful workplaces, organisations that have energy and vision and a common inspiring goal attract talented, purposeful, inspiring people.
Not in one yet? Then make it your purpose to find one.
When you look at people who really love what they do, one thing really springs out – they are all (or seem to be) really passionate about it. Great filmmakers, designers, environmentalists, activists, business men – you name it – they live and breath what they do. It can be the ingredient that makes things come alive, the x factor of great career dna.
And so it’s easy to believe that to love your work you have to be passionate too. So far so logical. But what if you AREN’T PASSIONATE about anything? What then? Does this mean you must resign yourself to a luke warm way of making a living? For those of you who want to love your work that’s a fate worse than well, your day job.
A bit like love we all want the thunderbolt, sparks and lightning, love at first sight. But here’s a thing – much like relationships – the long time friend or the person you didn’t quite fancy at first can grow on you and next thing you find yourself surprisingly, completely, irrevocably in love.
So FORGET ABOUT PASSION. Think about what interests and engages you. It doesn’t have to be a burning interest so don’t let that stop you( hint – burning interest usually= passion). Think about the things you care about at least somewhat or that you’re good at and enjoy. Go there. Spend some time with whatever it is, learn more, develop it. You might wake up one morning, and find yourself knowledgeable, immersed and dare I say it passionate about something after all.
Ah if there was a formula to this it would be so easy!
Great business successes often don’t have a brand new idea – they simply either improve an existing idea or transport it to virgin territory. Coffee chains first appeared in the USA seducing the coffee drinking public with brand and consistency, ambience and reach. Soon it became a lifestyle and there were imitators. Next it was only matter of time before they took the UK by storm…so nothing exactly new but I doubt the owners of Cafe Nero/Costa etc care about that!
You can keep your eye on what’s going on round the globe with this interesting little newsletter from Springwise whose network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds. You may just spot the next big thing!
RATS!!!
Here’s a question….when you think about your career so far, do you look ahead or behind you? I know that one of the things that really can weigh people down is regretting their choices. This is particularly true of those in their late 30′s or over, though I’ve seen it as young as 20! Wishing that they had chosen better or differently, had committed to a path earlier on, had chosen rightly at university, had acted instead of procrastinated, had taken risks, had established themselves in something they’d love doing. It’s not an uncommon lament to feel the weight of a colossal “If only…
Knowing that you might have made a brilliant doctor, or lawyer, or journalist or designer or any number of other things can feel like a debilitating regret particularly when you’re in a job that doesn’t exactly push your potential or when you are surrounded by people who seem happy in theirs. And there can come a point when it all just feels a little too late. There’s a dose of reality in that, as some professions, really do feel out of reach beyond a certain point – though of course that’s not to say it’s impossible. Often they can simply be beyond what we are prepared to do to have them – starting at the bottom, not earning enough, being an intern etc.
So far so commonplace. The interesting bit comes with how we deal with it. Regret takes up such a huge amount of energy and is so unconstructive that it cuts us off completely from the MANY things we may turn to NOW. It literally saps you dry, plays havoc with your confidence and turns your mind into the equivalent of a hamster wheel going in reverse. If you u-turn your thoughts from what could have been to what can now be – the world opens up. It may not quite feel like your oyster – but a little grit (pun intended!) courage and imagination goes a long long way.
But if you u-turn your thoughts from what could have been to what can now be – the world opens up. It may not quite feel like your oyster – but a little grit (pun intended!) and determination can be transformational. DECIDING to focus on the future (or ideally the here and now) shifts your internal gears from regret to reinvention. Watch what happens when all the energy you’ve been pouring into blaming yourself (or other people) for your past suddenly has a new trail to blaze…!
What’s yours?
A major roadblock when it comes to changing careers, is the massive and extremely common fear of choosing the wrong thing. We literally get so paralysed by indecision that we don’t choose anything at all. And the next thing another few years have gone by and you’re still stuck in the wrong job.
It might sound something like this to you:
1. I have so many different ideas, how do I know which one will be best?
2. Is there something else out there that would be perfect for me?
3. What if I make a mistake, choose the wrong direction and land up miserable again!
The reality is that there may be MANY possibilities that would suit you and be
fundamentally satisfying, each dependent on your situation and needs at the time. And so it seems it is less about the ‘perfect’ choice and more about ‘good’ choices - and to make good choices you need to arm yourself with information.
The trick then, is to follow your ideas through, research them FULLY, so that you can flesh out your understanding of them.Doing so achieves a number of things:
The other possibility of course is that you might not want to do just one thing. It is becoming
more and more commonplace for us to have a couple of different work strands each serving our
needs in very different ways; and together adding up to a rich way of living and working. This
has the advantage too of taking the huge pressure of choice off you, allowing you to experiment
and let things evolve rather than making a black and white decision that in reality can be a stark,
forced and artificial way to move ahead.
With all of these you need to start somewhere though, so pick one idea, ideally starting with the
one that appeals the most, and follow it through…
