Let’s look at a couple of theories and see if we can figure it out:

Theory 1 – ‘There aren’t enough enjoyable jobs to go around’.

Yes, that would explain it. We’ve all tried extremely hard to get a job we love but it’s too competitive and we had to settle for something else, right? Hang on a minute though, how many of us knew what we wanted to be when we left school? Most of my friends had no idea and it’s hard to go after your dream job if you don’t know what it is. But supposing you did know what you wanted to be, did you actually make a serious and sustained effort to achieve your goal? Did you even believe you could make it? Or were you encouraged to be ‘more realistic’ and get a job or career with ‘good prospects’? Ok, we’re going to struggle to prove this theory because in all honesty, how many of us have actually ever tried (seriously) to get a job we love? Not many I’m guessing.

Theory 2 – ’Enjoyable jobs don’t pay well so we have to get boring jobs in order to be happy….’

Hmm, something doesn’t sound quite right there. Actually, I think there may be two problems with that theory. First of all, it’s a bit of a sweeping statement to say that enjoyable jobs don’t pay well. Some of them can pay extremely well, especially if you’re good at them.  And secondly, trading our passions and dreams for a safe, steady, well-paid job, is not a recipe for happiness. It’s simply a waste of our talent in most cases, which is ironic because that’s the one thing most likely to produce the success and security we desire.

Ok, enough of the theories; if you really want to know why so many people are not doing a job they love, I have a simple exercise you can do that will reveal a lot.

Just take a look at how you ended up in your current job. What were the circumstances and events that led you here? Or more to the point, what were the decisions and actions you took (…or didn’t take) at various points along the way? Perhaps even more important than that: why did you take those decisions and actions? Now we’re starting to get to the heart of the problem. You see, the big reason why most of us aren’t doing a job we love is simply that our mindset has never been developed in a way that helps us to achieve that goal. It’s been developed to ‘play safe’ by focussing on career paths with ‘good prospects’ or that provide a reasonable level of job security. Ironically, this approach can leave us more at risk in today’s fast moving and highly flexible environment. To be ‘safe’ today, you need to play to your strengths. That means doing work that you are good at and that you are passionate about. Only then will you be able to truly shine at what you do and make a real difference to your employers/customers.

So my Top Tip for getting a job you love is to let your natural strengths and passions be your compass. They will guide you to the work you truly love. Or, to put it another way; let your heart tell you what and why and your head tell you how.

Take Care,

Ian Walton.

P.S. If you’ve got 15 mins to spare, have a look at the new video I’ve put on the RightWork4ME home page. It explains more about the mindset issues we have with getting a job we love and the most effective way to overcome them and make our dream a reality.

I’m sure you’ve heard that the worst Haitian earthquake
in 200 years (massive 7.0) struck the capital, Port
Au-Prince 2 days ago.

It’s easier for you to help than you think thanks to
a joint venture between the American Red Cross and
the US Department of State.

To send a $10 donation instantly to the American
Red Cross, just text the word “Haiti” (without the
quotes) to 90999.

Click here to read the original Red Cross article

It’s that simple (I know because I did it)

If you want to help with the earthquake relief in Haiti, but a donation isn’t the best way for you right now, then share this information on Facebook, Twitter, through email with your friends… pass the word along so that you can enable other people.

Let’s all keep all effected and involved in our thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

Ian Walton.

Just watched a great video from Stephen Pierce this morning. He talks about a process called ITJAR (Identity, Thoughts, Judgements, Actions, Results). There’s a link at the end of this post.

If you’ve ever tried to make a change in your life (like changing career for example, or starting a business) and it didn’t work out, the reason will ultimately come back to the actions you took. Those actions will in turn have been driven by the decisions (or judgements) you made along the way, and those decisions will have been based on the way you think about things. Ultimately, the way you think about things is governed by how you see yourself, in other words by your ‘personal identity’. So a great question to ask yourself is: ‘who am I?’ There is no right or wrong answer answer but whatever you come up with will give you lots of clues about how you see and react to the world around you. If you want to make changes in your life, you first need  to figure out what sort of person you need to become in order to have the mindset that will support that change.

For example, let’s say you want to start a business. Start by figuring out what you want to do based on your strengths and passions and then find a market you can serve. Once you are clear about those things, find out from others what it takes to succeed (pick people who have done something similar: read their books, magazines, blogs etc. and talk to people). Once you know this you can take a look at ‘who you are’ vs ‘who you need to be’ and start working on the skills, habits and mindset that will get you to where you want to go. Final point: It’s very hard to do this all by yourself. You need support from people who can positively influence your journey. Do whatever it takes to find them if you are serious about making a change.

See the video on Stephen’s blog: http://www.dtalpha.com/success.html

If you are thinking of starting your own online business, this area of the blog can save you a huge amount of time, money and hassle! I’ll be highlighting some resources that can dramatically shorten the time it takes to get a successful online business up and running. (Click on Categories in the sidebar and select Resources to see all relevant posts.)

I’ve spent hundreds of hours over many years going down all sorts of blind alleys that you can avoid. The resources I’ll be covering are all high quality products and services that I have either used myself or have been recommended by people I know and trust. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, good quality help and the right tools are the best investments you can make when starting up; they will repay themselves many times over.

A few brave souls attempt to make radical career changes, some are successful and some aren’t, but the fact is, most of us find it very hard to move outside of our comfort zone; you know, the one that gives you a familiar routine, a steady pay-check and the kind of hassle and stress that you’ve grown to love to hate! Never mind the fact that it’s a waste of our lives, we have bills to pay and a lifestyle to support! We NEED that miserable job that we hate in order to be happy! Hmmm, well maybe not happy exactly but…well…comfortable….or familiar….or something.

….SAFE! That’s it.

Why do we choose safe over happy? Because in order to be happy, we have to take a RISK. Now to some people, the word ‘RISK’ is exciting and energising (obviously there’s something wrong with them), however for most of us, RISK = SHORT CUT TO FAILURE. We’re convinced that if we take a risk, we’ll fail. And FAILURE = THE END OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT!

…….A bit like stepping off the edge of the world. Except that you can’t of course; the world isn’t flat and you won’t fall off the edge, you’ll simply be one step further away from where you just were. So why do we tend to have a ‘flat world’ mentality when it comes to making changes in our lives? Probably because unlike the world we live in (…well, on), we don’t have a clear map showing us what’s beyond our comfort zone. All it says is, ‘Here be Dragons!’.  Not very helpful really.

But some people (those who don’t subscribe to the above definition of RISK), have ventured into dragon territory and found that……there are no dragons. They have faced the unknown and in doing so, dragon territory is now home territory.

Note: You don’t need to look far to find these intrepid explorers, they live amongst us and many of them are happy to share what they know. (You’ll be hearing from some on this blog.)

But what of those who fail? Well actually, they’re the ones that succeed. What!? It’s true; they treat failure as a learning experience, a step along the path to their goal. They understand that every obstacle or problem presents an opportunity to learn and grow. Failure shows them where they need to make changes to succeed. It forges them into the person they need to become.

The majority of people who truly fail, do so simply because they never try in the first place. Of those that do try, many give up too early, when success is only a lesson or two away.

Let me give you a simple formula for success:

Success = Focused Passion + Persistent Informed Action

In other words:  To be successful , you need to have a clear goal you are passionate about and then take persistent and well informed action to achieve that goal. By ‘well informed action’, I mean taking action that is based on the best information, knowledge and experience available to you at the time (including the feedback and lessons from any previous action).

If you look at anyone who is consistently successful, you will find that this is exactly what they do.

The truth is, if you have a strong enough reason to do something, and you commit to it, then providing you are humble enough to face a few challenges along the way and learn from them, you will succeed.

Don’t waste your life doing a job you hate. Find out what you want to do, learn how to make it happen and then take action.

“What a man can be, he must be. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. ” — Abraham Maslow 

What must you be?

By: Ian Walton.

Messing about on the beach

Just a pic of me having fun with the kids this summer

Bear with us as we get the blog up and running…..it’s nearly there now :-)

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

All the best,

Ian Walton.