If you knew me at the time, you would have described me as proactive, ambitious, motivated, and confident. And I was.

But one thing was bugging me while I was in graduate school. I really had no idea what it was going to be like to get a job in my field. I was learning theories, but had very little application experience. I wanted to know what I was getting myself into before committing wholeheartedly to the path.

I knew my fellow grad students felt the same. Going to school was great, but what was it going to be like in the REAL world?

Then I got an idea. Why not find out ahead of time from people who were currently doing the jobs we were all interested in having?

I approached the head of our program and told him we wanted to know what it was like to have a human factors job in the real world. I asked him if he would help us connect with his previous graduate students who now had full time jobs so we could ask them pertinent questions about life beyond college. He thought it was a fabulous idea.

Not only did he reach out to some great companies, they agreed to send a panel of their experts to our class so we could ask them questions.

The first to arrive was Kaiser Permanente. Human factors positions inside Kaiser Permanente pertained to designing medical instruments and improving systems within the hospital, especially the ER. This was third on my list of areas I wanted to go into when I graduated.

The panel showed up with the head of their department plus 4 or 5 other employees. Me and 12 grad students sat down across from them and they invited us to ask questions. I asked the first question. The panel answered. I waited but no one else had a question so I asked another. They answered. Hardly any of the other students asked questions, but I was firing them off like a machine gun.

“Did you feel you had enough training when you graduated in order to do your job with Kaiser, or was there a learning curve?”

“Was there anything you found you weren’t prepared to do? And if so, what do you recommend we study to supplement our education?”

“Do you enjoy your position? Was it everything you thought it would be?”

“Do you work alone or with people on projects?”

“How quickly can you advance in the company?”

“How much does an entry level job pay and does having a PhD matter or was a Master’s degree enough?”

“Where do you see the industry headed in the next 5 to 10 years?”

“What qualities do you look for in a potential candidate for employment?”

And on and on I went. After a while, the head of the Kaiser Permanente Human Factors group turned to my professor and said, “Send us this one when she graduates.”

The exact same thing happened the next week when the IBM panel arrived. At IBM we would be heavily involved in designing interfaces for human-computer interaction. At the time, this was a huge field that was growing rapidly. I wasn’t as interested in this, but most of the other students in my program were, so that’s why we invited IBM.

I fired off similar questions to IBM. I am a naturally curious person and I like to know what I’m getting into before I get into it, just to make sure it’s going to be what I expect.

After these two panels, my professor took me aside and said, “Erin, both IBM and Kaiser were very impressed with you. Both of them have asked me to make an offer to you for employment on their behalf, if you’re interested. IBM is offering you a position in their department with a starting pay of $50,000 when you graduate. Kaiser is offering you $40,000. These are both fantastic companies to work for with great programs and benefits. I told them you were my best student and they’d be lucky to have you. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll arrange a private meeting.”

I was shocked! I thought the guy at Kaiser was kidding when he said what he said. I felt really humbled and grateful. I ended up declining both positions because I decided to go for my PhD and hold out for a job at NASA or with the military.

But do you see what happened here? Instead of sending a resume to a company and hoping to get an interview, and be in competition with everyone else applying for a job, all I did was show proactivity, interest, and I asked intelligent questions.

Remember what I wrote in my other article, How I Got Every Job I Ever Wanted that the way to get a job was to be a personal solution to the interviewer’s problem? What were these people probably thinking when they sat across from a group of 12 students and only one of them seemed interested in really understanding the inner workings of their company? Instead of them interviewing me to see if I was suitable for them, I ended up interviewing them to see if they were suitable for ME.

In the process I showed confidence, interest, proactivity, discernment, and I didn’t come across as needy. I stood apart from my fellow students.

You can use this very same technique to get a position with the company you want. Here’s how to do it.

If you’re in college, contact a few companies you’re interested in working for when you graduate. Tell them you’re studying and want to make sure the field is really going to be a good fit for you, and ask if you can set up a meeting with someone in the company for a chat. Offer to take them out to lunch. Or arrange a panel like I did and let them come to you. After you’ve impressed them, what do you think they’re going to think when they need to hire someone? They’re already going to know about you.

If you’re out of school and want to work for a specific company, you can do the same thing. I once contacted Dr. Thelma Moss, who was a parapsychologist featured in the movie, “Poltergeist.” Imagine my surprise when she answered the phone herself. I simply told her I was interested in becoming a parapsychologist and wondered if she had any advice for me. She spent 30 minutes talking to me on the phone and answering all of my questions. You don’t know until you try.

If you work for yourself, this works too. Simply present yourself to a company and let them know you’d like to know more about what they do, what they offer, how they serve their clients, etc. You’re not asking for a job, you’re getting to know them. Surely during the conversation they will want to know why you’re asking and you’ll mention what you do for a living and, now that you’ve built some rapport and shown interest in their work, they will be more likely to give you their business.

The point is… people hire people they want to work with. People hire people who are a solution to their problem. People hire people who show enthusiasm and interest in their company. People don’t hire paper. Stand out from the crowd. Do it differently. Make them come to you with an offer. It works.

So I asked her if she knew how to quilt. She brightened up and said, “Oh yes, I’ve been quilting for years. Practically my whole life. I’ve made more quilts than I can count.” Interesting. So I went back to the guides and asked them what quilting had to do with her career path. Was she supposed to make and sell quilts or what?

The guides conveyed that just making quilts and selling them wouldn’t be lucrative enough for her. They downloaded an entire business plan to me. This is what they shared with me and what I then shared with her: “They’re showing me you creating an online magazine related to quilting, sewing, and other home economic tips. They’re also showing me you creating an instructional video related to quilting, and information products also. They’re showing me you selling patterns and ideas for patterns, creating an online discussion community, and also offering a ‘quilts for sale’ kind of board like an ebay. They’re telling me also that you used to do some writing and that an online magazine would actually be easy for you to operate. Is that right?”

She was speechless for a moment then said, “Yes, I took a lot of writing classes in college because at one point I wanted to be a journalist but abandoned that idea in favor of something more stable in the tech industry. I never really thought to do anything professional with it, but I’ve dabbled here and there with writing articles, and I’ve also tried blogging about my personal life but it didn’t work out for me as I had no traffic.”

Then I asked her if the quilting business idea resonated with her, and she said, “Absolutely it does. I never would have thought I could make money with a hobby. I thought the only way to make money quilting was to sell quilts and I don’t have the time and energy to do that like I used to. But teaching others and providing a learning forum, and writing about it would be so awesome. And now that you’re telling me this, it just makes so much sense. Plus I could work from home which I would really love to do!”

We spent the next 15 minutes making a solid business plan for her. She realized she could start almost immediately. She added plans to let other people contribute to the magazine so she wouldn’t have to write all the articles herself, she was going to add an expert panel to do some Q&A, and get an outline going of what departments she wanted her magazine to have. She was elated. She was stoked. She had a plan that resonated with her and would make her happy. And her guides explained how she would start this on the side while she still had her current tech job, and once it could replace her income, she would quit her tech job.

And this happens ALL THE TIME in the readings I do with clients. People don’t always realize or see that the things they do for fun – their hobbies and passions – can be turned into a new career. This woman was in her late 50′s. She’d been quilting and sewing for decades. She had no idea that her knowledge and experience would be of significant value to others who were just starting out. She didn’t realize she was an expert.

What skills, knowledge, or experience do you currently have that make you an expert to those just starting out? What’s under your belt?

When I first started my spirituality blog in 2006 I thought, “Who is going to want to hear about my paranormal, astral, and lucid dreaming experiences? Who would want to hear what I have to say about compassion and love? How do my intuitive experiences help anyone?” Five years later, my blog gets more than 100,000 visitors per month and I earn a solid living providing intuitive counseling and spiritual guidance to others. All I’m doing is sharing what I know with those who are seeking.

If you’re in a career that isn’t making you happy anymore, think about the skills, hobbies, and passions you have. Think about what you know that you could pass on to others who are just starting out. Is it of value? Could you construct a business around it that would offer something of value to others?

Think outside the box. Be creative. Don’t discount anything. Are you really good at hiking? Who might want to learn from you? Are you really good at giving advice to your friends? Who might benefit from your wisdom? Are you great at self-defense? Who could you teach? Are you awesome at attracting women? Might there be people out there who would kill or die for your knowledge? Are you extremely healthy and fit? Could you teach others how you got that way?

You’re an expert. At something. And there are people coming along the path behind you who would happily pay you to teach them what you know. It can shave years off their learning curve. Start thinking about who you are and how you got there, and see if you can find a way to help others find what you’ve already found.

Whatever you would say in those two minutes is a huge clue to your life purpose. Your life purpose is not your career or your job, but you can certainly align the two. Your life purpose is the message you would give to the world if the whole world was listening to you. Do you know what you’d say? What would you talk about?

Do this exercise: Make a list of the things you want to say to the world. Don’t censor or filter anything right now. Just make a long list of everything you’d like to say to the population of planet Earth. Here are some examples to get you thinking…

• Be excellent to each other
• You are loved
• You are never alone
• Be kind
• Treat others with respect
• Be compassionate
• Everyone deserves food, clothing, and shelter
• You are more powerful than you realize
• You come from God
• You are beautiful
• We are all connected
• You are more than enough

Now look at your list and figure out which of the items on your list is the most important one to you. Which one really burns in your belly, aches in your gut, fires up your heart? Which of the things you’ve written down do you feel would seriously have the most impact if people listened, believed, and acted upon?

The other items on your list may be important to you too, but just pick the one you would pick if some mighty supreme being told you that you could only pick one.

Now, write that down on the top of a piece of paper, and write or type up an explanation of your concept such that if you gave it as a speech it would last roughly two minutes.

For example:

We are all connected
If we could but understand that we are all cells in the Body of Humanity we would not attack the other cells. We would not hurt them, kill them, poison them, ignore them when they are in need. If we could see that we are all One, and that we are all connected, we would help each other grow, we would share food and resources, we would heal those who are suffering. We would strive together to ensure the happiness and well-being of the Whole. When one cell is suffering, we would aid it. When one cell was thriving, we would applaud it. We would not hurt others because doing so would only hurt ourselves.

You get the idea. Write your two minute speech to the world on the topic you chose above.

Your life purpose is tied in to this concept. Now it’s time to get practical. What are you supposed to do with this concept? The answer is to align your path with your concept. Now you can start determining how your life purpose and career intertwine.

Let’s say your life purpose is related to the concept of “You are more powerful than you realize.” What could you do to help people realize this while also getting paid?

Here are just a few ideas off the top of my head. You could become:

• a life coach – helping people get past blocks and fears and giving them tools to achieve success
• a healer – helping people use their own energy to heal their bodies
• a fiction writer – writing about characters who discover they are more powerful than they initially realized
• a teacher – helping young people access their talents and intellect
• a minister – helping people realize the power of prayer
• a motivational speaker – inspiring and motivating people towards personal growth
• an intuitive counselor – helping people get realigned with their life purpose
• a book publisher – publishing books that inspire and help people grow
• a career counselor – helping people enter fields that are aligned with their life purpose
• a sports coach – helping people improve their physical abilities beyond what they dreamed possible
• a software engineer – designing software that helps people grow and improve
• a personal trainer – pushing people to achieve physical fitness goals that will make them healthier
• a physical therapist – helping people adapt to life-changing injuries that threaten to keep them down
• a parent – helping your children understand themselves and go after their dreams

And the list goes on and on. You don’t have to actually stand on a stage and speak your message. You can live your message. Spend your day putting into the world what you feel is most important. That is your life purpose.

So figure out what you most want to see in the world, and align your career path towards it. You may have a huge impact or a small one, but whatever you do will send ripples of positive energy through the Body of Humanity. And that’s good for everyone, because we’re all connected.

First realize that when you get hired to work at a company, you are expected to do your job. You’re expected to do what the company hired you to do for the salary and benefits agreed upon. You won’t get a raise doing what you’re already being paid to do, so don’t expect anything more than a cost of living raise at your yearly review.

To earn a promotion or get a raise you must do more than expected and provide more value to your company. You must do more than you’re asked to do, and provide more value than you were expected to provide. You must be integral to the continued success of the company such that they would be foolish to fire you or risk you going to another company. You must show them that you are committed to the success of the company, are a team player, and supportive of the company’s goals.

To give you a real-world example of how this worked for me, I’ll share a story from when I was 24. At the time, I was the receptionist and administrative assistant to the office manager of a radio production company. I was supposed to answer the phone, make photocopies, and file. I was paid the least of anyone else in our 40 person office. But I loved the company and loved the atmosphere. As time went on, I started to see ways I could improve operations. There were all kinds of inefficiencies going on at the office. I started to see ways I could improve our systems. It was not remotely in my bailiwick to do anything of the kind, but I began proposing my ideas to the office manager, Shelly, who thought they were great ideas. She proposed them to our boss who said, “She’s the receptionist. Why does she think she can do anything to improve our internal systems? This is ridiculous.” Shelly told him, “She’s got some good ideas. I say we give her a shot. How could it hurt?” He said, “Fine, as long as it doesn’t do any harm, or I’m holding you responsible.”

So Shelly told me to draft a proposal for the changes I wanted to make and submit it to her, and I wasn’t allowed to do it on company time either. I was excited! I went home and came up with all kinds of ways to improve the company, from organization to company lunches to supply ordering and scheduling, and much more. I identified all the parts of the system that were broken or run ineffectively and came up with solutions to them all. Then I gave my ideas for remediation to Shelly. She loved every idea I came up with and we began instituting changes immediately.

At first some of the changes were met with resistance, especially by some of the people who had been at the company for years. To them I was some young whipper-snapper with a bee in my bonnet and too much free time. But with the authority of the office manager, the changes got made. One day, the big boss, owner of the company, calls me into his office. I was scared. I was literally the lowest man on the totem pole meeting with the big kahuna who hardly ever spoke to me or even glanced my way. I sat down nervously.

“Sit down young lady,” he said. I sat. There were a thousand butterflies swirling in my stomach, chest, and throat. He started shuffling some papers around, reading them, and making noises. I was in agony waiting to hear why he called me in. Finally he looked at me and said, “I don’t know how you did all of this, but I’ve asked all my department heads how they like the changes you made and every single one said their departments are now running more efficiently. They’re all singing your praises. How did you do this?”

“Well, I’m a graduate student and I’m studying a branch of psychology called Human Factors Engineering where we basically look at a system and try to improve it so the human can work in it more easily, intuitively, and efficiently, and I…”

He interrupted me, “I don’t care what you call it. This is gold! I’m looking at the changes you made and they all seem so obvious now, but you’ve somehow integrated areas that seemed separate and made them into one finely tuned machine. Honestly, I’m shocked. I mean, you’re a receptionist.”

I said, “No I’m a graduate student working here to pay the bills while I get my degree. Then I’m going to go work for NASA and design space shuttles so that…”

He interrupted me again, “No, I don’t want you to leave. Listen, I’d like you to keep looking at ways to make the company run more smoothly. If you see anything that can be improved I want you to bring it to Shelly’s attention immediately. Because of the changes you made, we’re making more money in less time, and I like that. And I like you. You’re a go-getter, a real team player, you’ve got what it takes to succeed.”

I very boldly said, “Well, I’d like to, of course, while I’m still working here. But honestly, once I graduate you probably won’t be able to afford me. I won’t be happy being a receptionist. You’re paying me $16,000 a year. I can barely pay my bills on that.”

He said, “I’ll offer you $29,000 a year right now if you’ll commit to staying for at least another year. And I’ll give you a promotion to office manager.” I said, “Wait, that’s Shelly’s job.” He said, “You’re better than Shelly. But I’ll promote her to being my Executive Assistant and you can both stay. But you’ll still have to answer phones, file, and make photocopies.” I told him I’d think about it.

I had walked into that office afraid that he didn’t like what I had done, and I walked out of that office with an offer of a promotion and a significant raise. Why? Because it made perfect financial sense for my boss to do what he had to in order to get me to stay. I was an asset to my company. I was valuable, and helped achieve company goals. Who would fire that? Who would let that walk out the door? No sensible business-person.

What value do you provide your company? Do you generate income for your company? Is your presence at the company making it stronger or weaker? Are you contributing to the success of the company or weighing it down?

When times are lean, companies look to cut the fat. Who do they cut first? People who aren’t even doing the job they’re being paid for, people who whine and complain, people who do not directly generate income for the company, people who show no loyalty, and those who do nothing to support the company’s goals. Is that you?

Instead, if you want a raise and a promotion, even in a bad economy, here are my suggestions:

• Do more than you’re asked to do
• Find ways to make your company more money
• Improve your skills by taking classes or self-educating and offer those new skills to your company
• Be a team player
• Enrich your office environment personally and professionally
• Make it stupid for your company to let you go

In hard times, companies become even more driven by costs and profit. Increasing your value to the company will keep you employed and may even get you the raise and promotion so coveted in this economy.

During my sessions with clients, I am often able to tune in to their passions.  There’s this big aha moment when I dig up something they long thought buried, and then outline the steps they can take to leave their old passionless job and step into a career that excites them. 

Recently I did a reading for a woman who was at the top of her game career-wise, making a mid-six-figure income, success all around her.  But she wasn’t fulfilled, so she was about to quit her job and go into consulting in the same industry she’d been working for for years in an attempt to at least have some freedom.  She wanted advice on her new chosen career path. 

But her guides wouldn’t go there with her because she was not on the path with passion.  Instead her guides showed me a scenario where she started a foundation to help impoverished women and children in third world countries, which was not even close to what she was doing today. 

I reminded her that before she went to college this is what she wanted to do.  She agreed that was accurate; that that had been her dream long ago but she didn’t think she could accomplish it so she went the corporate/law route, and rose through the ranks in a very large, well known company.  Her hope was that she could convince this company to be more charitable, but it never happened as she got lost in the corporate shuffle of earning profits or else. 

When I tapped her back in to her compassion and outlined the steps she would take to make this foundation a reality she was really quiet for a moment and then got really emotional and said, “I would love to do that more than anything on the planet.  Thank you for reminding me who I really am.  It makes so much sense now.”  On the bright side, her power, contacts, and connections in the corporate world are now going to assist her with manifesting her dream.

So what are you passionate about?  Do you remember?  If you’re not sure, here are some steps you can take to tap into the passion you buried long ago or are putting to the side until “later.”  Get some paper or open a Word document.  You’ll want to keep this handy for “later.”

What makes you giddy with excitement?
Think about all the things in your life you love to do.  Whether it’s skiing, reading, hiking, socializing, going to parties, making videos to upload to YouTube, playing poker, or just meditating quietly for hours.  Just make a list of all the things you would feel eager to do if someone told you to take the day off from work and just do what you wanted to do.  “Hey so-and-so, why don’t we blow off work today and go ________?”  Fill that blank in with a list of things you’d rather do than work.

It doesn’t matter if it seems wasteful on the surface.  One of my friends goes nuts over video and computer games.  He’s a gamer, pure and simple.  There’s nothing he’d rather do.  He went to college to learn computer science because it seemed like a likely choice for himself career-wise, but he really wasn’t into it.  Now he works as a game tester and gets to play games all day.  He rose through the ranks quickly and is well-liked because he is excellent at providing constructive feedback that will make the games better.  If he keeps at it, he could potentially create his own game one day or be on the design team.

Another friend of mine loves movies and television.  He spends a lot of time watching both and getting excited about upcoming new shows and movies.  He’d be excellent at creating a new television series, which is something he is now looking into.  But before I suggested it he thought it impossible.  His day job is at an accounting firm where he daydreams and imagines new characters, stories and shows in his head.  The talent and passion are there, he just has to take action on them.

Once you’ve got your list of the things that excite you, really consider how you might segue into a career that allows you to do that all the time!  Think hard and be creative.  You don’t have to quit your job today, just start thinking about ways that other people are earning money doing what you love, and see if you can find your way into that same arena.

What breaks your heart?
When you look around the world today do you see people suffering?  Do you see things that are wrong with the world that you’d love to see fixed?  What breaks your heart?  Starving children?  Abused children?  World politics?  The homeless?  War and conflict?  What breaks your heart is often a clue to passion.  If you were ignited and believed yourself capable of making a difference in the world, where would you turn your attention?  What problem would you tackle?  No one is saying you have to end world hunger overnight.  Just tap into your heart break and see what’s there.

Make a list right now of all the things that really break your heart.  I’m talking about the things that really tug at your heart strings or ignite you with passion and zeal.  Once you’ve got your list, see if you can figure out a way to take action on your heart break.  This doesn’t have to be something you do for a living, but maybe it’s something you start doing on the side, which will eventually lead to expertise, progress, and job offers.  There are people out there who earn a living tackling world problems, such as politicians, movie producers, and bloggers.

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
What I hear most often from those who know their passion but aren’t taking action on it is, “But I don’t know how.”  No one knows how when they’re first starting out.  Not knowing how to do something is not a good enough reason not to do it.  You learn how.  You either find someone who is successful doing it and learn how they did it, or you go through your own trial and error until you figure it out. 

On your sheet of paper, write down the phrase, “If I knew I couldn’t fail I would …”  and then make a list of what you would do.  Think big, really big.  The sky’s the limit.  Here is my own list:  If I knew I couldn’t fail I would want to help people remember that we are all connected, that we are all One, and that hurting others only hurts ourselves.  I would teach people about compassion and kindness towards their fellow man.  I would empower others to awaken and take action in the area of their passion.  I would teach acceptance and love.

Now think about it, there are so many ways to accomplish the items on my list.  I could be a motivational speaker, a diplomat, a politician, a counselor, a writer, a coach, a screenwriter, etc.  As long as I stay tapped into my message, the medium is my choice.  What could you do with your list?  Make a list of all the careers or jobs you could have where you could make progress on your “If I knew I couldn’t fail” goal.  See what emerges. 

What makes you feel like you’ve contributed?
Another way to determine your passion is to ask yourself to finish this phrase, “At the end of the day, I feel best when I’ve _________” and fill in the blank.  Do you feel best when you’ve solved a problem, helped someone who was suffering, had an impact, made a change in your life, challenged yourself, organized an area, gotten all the kids to after-school activities on time, made a nice dinner for your spouse, taken time out for yourself, meditated, communed with nature, etc?  What gives you that nice sigh of contentment and the feeling of a job well done?  Could you earn money doing that for a living?  You bet you could.  Even if you feel most content sitting in a hot bubble bath or getting a massage, why not open a spa and sell that contentment to others?  What if you’re a stay-at-home-parent who is super organized and you feel great at the end of the day if everything is in its proper place and all the children are well fed and clean?  Write a book to help others who aren’t as good at it as you, or start a blog, or do workshops on it.  Don’t discount contentment and contribution.  If you love it, chances are other people would love it too.  Help them find it if they don’t have it and you’ve got a new career.

***

Your passion is in you somewhere.  Remember it or find it.  Then turn your passion into action. Find the road that leads to success with your passion.  You can do it!  When you combine passion with skill and contribution, success is not far behind.  Don’t spend another day doing something you hate. Find and ignite your passion today!

As you can imagine, my first few calls were dismal.  I wasn’t practiced with my script and fumbled a lot.  People hung up on me right quick.  But in time I started to do better.  I remember being so excited to get someone on the phone willing to do the survey.  When I was done, I proudly added a tick mark on the white board.  Our bosses kept track of how many surveys we all completed.  I was the new kid so no one expected much.  There were some people that had been there for years.  They looked like zombies to be honest.  No light in them at all.  It was like the life had been sucked out of them.  I started to be concerned but figured I’d only be there for the summer and I would endure.

After my first week I was accustomed to making over a hundred phone calls per day, and I was lucky to get 20 surveys done in a week.  I felt like a total failure but I was assured it was par for the course.  Then I decided to change my strategy.  I went completely off-script initially in order to get the customer interested in taking the survey.  I just decided to be 100% completely honest with them instead of going through a canned spiel. 

“Hello, my name is Erin and I work for a telemarketing company.  Yep, it’s a horrible job but I’m a student and it’s the only way I can afford school.  If it isn’t too much trouble, would you be willing to take a short survey with me?  I want to look good in front of my bosses and if you stay on the phone with me I won’t have to make another 10 calls.  I would really be grateful.”  I can’t tell you how many people relented and sympathized with me.  Before I knew it, my survey completion record had doubled.  People who had been there for years started noticing and some of them got angry with me.  There was a definite competition vibe there.  Apparently the plum jobs went to the best people.  I was inordinately pleased with myself though, and the job was more bearable.  My specialty has always been connecting with people easily, so I used that skill to make headway in this job.

Of course, my bosses began to notice.  One day they called me in and said they needed to have a talk with me.  I was nervous as I thought they were going to fire me for going off script.  One of my competitors, I mean co-workers, was particularly annoyed that I was going off script, and I know she told on me.  As it turned out, though, my bosses were not only okay with it, but impressed.  They asked if I was willing to be put on a special project that wasn’t sponsored by another company but was actually their own private project.  It came with a pay raise and my own private office with a door, no more cubicle!  I jumped at the chance!

My new job was to call people and ask them if they wanted to buy a book called Dianetics written by L. Ron Hubbard.  I thought that was sort of a strange thing to be doing, but I didn’t care.  So I called people and asked them if they wanted to buy this book which was supposedly all about self improvement and making yourself happier.  The list I was calling from was surprisingly sympathetic to this request.  Good list, I thought!  Whether people were willing or unwilling to buy the book, I was also told to ask them if they wanted to make a donation to some L. Ron Hubbard charity fund.  I had no idea what this was all about, but that didn’t matter to me.  I was doing very well and making a lot of money for this L. Ron Hubbard fellow.   I was proud of my skill and my bosses were over the moon about me.  They gave me another raise.  I was rockin’!

Then the co-worker who ratted me out took me aside one day and told me that our bosses were Scientologists.  I’m like, “What’s a Scientologist?”  She told me it was a religious cult, and she said some really nasty things about it.  I became very concerned.  I felt duped, deceived, and used.  I didn’t want to be a religious cult fundraiser!  Without doing much research on my own (no internet in those days) I decided I had to stop and go back to doing the lame surveys.  I went to my bosses and told them I felt uncomfortable.  They were so incredibly nice and understanding.  In fact, these guys were so gentle and kind, I found it hard to believe they were part of any cult.  They asked if I wanted to know more about Scientology.  So I sat and listened to them explain the whole thing to me.  I thought it sounded really weird but not as cult-like as co-worker chick made it out to be.   I was still uncomfortable with the job they were having me perform, though, so I told them I couldn’t do it anymore.  They understood and then they let me go.  They had already hired someone to take my place doing the surveys. 

I wasn’t overly upset.  I wanted to get out of there badly.  So I left with little huff.  But I learned something from that job.  I learned that who you work for is just as important as the work you’re doing.   If your personal beliefs aren’t in alignment with the goals your company is trying to achieve, why are you working for them?  I often think about people who work for the big tobacco companies, or the people who work in the slaughterhouses.  Is it just a job to them?  Or are they going against their own ideals in order to earn a paycheck?  I mean, we all have our limits and it’s up to you to choose them, but do you know who you’re working for?  Which of their goals are you achieving for them and are these goals you’d work on yourself if you could?  If I were to ever be in a position where I was working for someone else again, I’d try to find a job with a company whose goals and ideals were closely aligned with mine, because then all the work I did for them would contribute to what I perceived as the greater good.

Who do you work for?

You either fell into your job accidentally or you moved to it consciously.  That doesn’t matter today.  If you no longer like your job and wish  you were someplace else doing the same thing or someplace else doing something different, it doesn’t really matter how you got into it in the first place, it’s time to go.

Maybe you’re saying, “But I’ve been here so long… if I give up now I’ll have wasted the last 20 years.”  No, absolutely you didn’t waste the last 20 years.  You got a lot out of them.  Now you’re done.  Thank your job for what it did for you, and allow yourself to see a life beyond it.  The last thing you want to do is stick it out for another 20 if you don’t love it anymore.  Okay okay, if you’ve got less than a year to retirement and a full pension, maybe sticking it out isn’t such a bad idea.  But if you’re in your 20’s or 30’s or even 40’s and you hate your job, don’t give it any more of your life.  Move on.

But you might say, “If I switch careers I’ll have to start at the bottom.  I won’t earn as much money as I do now.”  That might be true.  It might not be.  It’s not a given that you will earn less money if you switch to an entirely different career.  Lots of people move into doing something they love that instantly earns them more money than they’re making now.  If money is very important to you, make sure the next job or career you move into will earn you the money you want to make.  If it doesn’t, it’s probably not a vibrational match for all your needs anyway and you shouldn’t even be considering it.

So now you’re thinking, “What if you know you hate your job but you’re not sure what you would love to do?”  Figure it out.  Spend a lot of time figuring it out.  It’s really important.  It’s your life, after all.  You should get to spend all of it doing what you want, when you want, the way you want, for the money you want.  If you believe it’s impossible to have all of that in a job then you should examine the beliefs you have about money, careers, and your own ability, because there are tons of people out there who love everything about their jobs.  Be one of them.  Don’t stop until you are.

Literally start making a list of all the things you love to spend your time doing.  Not just your hobbies.  Also list your skills.  I know a woman who has been in the accounting profession her entire life.  About 18 years now.  She hates her job, but when I ask her what she does love about it she tells me she likes solving problems, putting the pieces of a financial puzzle together, and tracking down every last dime.  It’s the thrill of the hunt that she loves.  So now she’s looking for other careers that allow her to express those skills but don’t include accounting.  Do you have some of those?  What do you still love about your job?  Write it down, but don’t attach it to that particular job.  Perhaps you can get some of that in a new profession.  I’ll bet this accountant would love being a private investigator for example.

Once you’ve got your list of what you love, see which things on your list you’re actually good at.  This is important.  If you try to do something you love but aren’t good at, you’ll probably fail.  That won’t lead to happiness.  Maybe it’s something you can get good at either by going to school or practicing more.  So while you’re in your current job making oodles of money, see about getting better at the thing you love to do.  Yes, it’s a commitment, but it’s worth it in the end.  Doesn’t matter if it takes a few years.

Once you have figured out what you love to do and what you’re good at, ask yourself which of those items provide value to other people.  You can be the best stamp licker in the world but is anyone going to pay you to lick their stamps for them?  Don’t be naïve.  Money is an exchange of value.  Unless you love standing on a street corner and you’re really good at holding a sign, you’re going to need to find a way to provide value doing what you love and what you’re good at.  So look at your list.  Does a large portion of society need the value you can offer?  Or would a small portion of society pay you big bucks to provide that particular value to them? If no one would pay you to do it, cross if off your list and keep it to yourself.  Or if you’re very inventive, find a way to create a demand for it.

I think you’re getting the idea here.  Find something you love, that you’re good at, that provides value to others and start a business or get a job doing just that.

When should you leave your current job?  Some people transition slowly to their new job by doing it on the side until it’s earning enough income to replace their current income, or some people just up and quit their current job so they can totally focus full-time on manifesting the new one.  Either way works, and either way can fail.  For example, if you have a lot of savings and you expect it will only take a short while to get your new career up and running, it’s probably safe to quit the current job and jump into the new one full time.  If, however, you’ve got no savings, 7 mouths to feed, and you need time to build up a clientele or get training or more education, etc. then perhaps the transition approach is best.  Just knowing that you’re on a road that leads away from your current job can be enough to sustain your soul while you slog away at it every day.  But don’t wait too long.  Keep your momentum going!

I have a friend who doesn’t particularly love his job.  We’ve identified a whole bunch of things he loves doing that he is good at, and we’ve even identified a way for him to provide value to others by doing it.  His big block?  “What if the new job feels like work?  I’d hate for something I love to do to feel like work.”  When you are doing what you love and you’re earning money from it, it’s not work.  It’s joy.  He doesn’t know this because he’s never experienced it and can’t believe it’s possible to enjoy what you do for a living.  So years later, he’s still slogging away at his job and doing this other cool stuff on evenings and weekends.  He’s afraid he’ll stop enjoying these delicious things if they are his job.   Trust me, you don’t stop enjoying them.  They get even more exciting.

If you hate your job, it’s time to move on.  Don’t give your loyalty to a job you’re no longer a vibrational match for.  There is no honor in that.  You probably were a vibrational match for it when you first got there.  If you’re no longer a match though, why stick around?  What else calls to you?  What else do you wish you always got the chance to explore?  Is your current job the one your parents told you would be safe and secure?  Did you ignore the call of your joy in exchange for security and safety?  I’m telling you that you can have security, stability, financial abundance, and joy too.  Why not go for the whole package?  If you’re waiting until you retire to finally start living and enjoying your life, you’re making a big mistake.  You deserve joy now.