How to shift your career plans to generate well-being through work

Do you love your work? When you wake up in the morning, are you impatient to start working because you’re so excited about it?

A growing number of people are in this lucky position, but unfortunately, there still seem to be many of us who view work more as a necessity than a calling.

Do you remember why you started doing the work you are doing now? Lots of people don’t have a compelling answer to this question.

This suggests that many of us either don’t know what our true passion is, or, if we do, we assume that it can’t possibly be turned into a profession.

So what is the secret to knowing your true passion, and then finding a way to make a successful job out of it?

Here are some tips to help you get started:

Take time to reflect on who you really are

Many of our choices in life are taken without taking a lot of time to reflect on how well they are aligned with our core being.

This may not matter very much with minor decisions, but when it comes to choosing our career path, not taking adequate time for reflection can have disastrous effects.

Instead of doing work that fulfills us, we could find ourselves in a mind-numbing nightmare that is repeated on a daily basis.

So, cultivate the habit of reflecting on who you really are, and what it is you really want out of life.

This will help you to move towards a career that you want, instead of finding yourself in a situation where you need to move away from a career that you hate.

Find time to (re-)discover your passion

Everybody is passionate about something. But sometimes it can be hard to get in touch with our passion because we’ve muted that voice in ourselves for so long.

The more time we spend doing work that is not really fulfilling, the more we silence the voice of passion.

Usually there is a rational reason for this – while our work may not be fulfilling, at least it is well respected, and it generates a steady income for us and our families.

But the energy of passion is very different from this. It doesn’t tolerate complacency or compromise.

So, in order to get in touch with your passion, try to move away from the voice of reason, and instead look for things that make you feel excited, whether they seem sensible or not.

Often, it helps to remember what we were passionate about in our youth. Children are much more motivated by passion than the voice of reason.

And while our passions may have changed a lot since our youth, it helps to remember that feeling of intense excitement we felt about doing something we loved as a child.

Create a plan to make a living with your passion

Once you have a good idea about your passion, you need to find a way to turn it into a job that makes money.

This should be as detailed as possible, and make sure that you write it down, including concrete goals and milestone accomplishments.

Often this is the hardest part, because we have gotten so used to believing that our passion can’t possibly be turned into a profitable business.

At this stage, it can be very helpful to look at people who are already doing something similar. If they found a way to make it work, then so can we.

In fact, if you don’t want to strike out on your own and set up your own business, you could decide to join them.

Anybody who is truly passionate about their work loves getting team members who are also passionate about it.

Take real steps to make it happen

Once you have found your passion and have made a plan, it’s essential to start taking concrete steps to make it happen. Otherwise it will just stay a dream, and you’ll lose your faith in it.

So, even if attending courses, or booking sessions with coaches can be helpful, at the end of the day it’s up to you to make it happen.

If your new career path is unlikely to generate sufficient income right away, it’s advisable to start working on it in parallel to your current job, and devote your free time to building it.

Then, as soon as you start to generate some real results and success stories, use them as fuel for your passion, and drive yourself to make your dream job come true.

While following a career out of passion is definitely not easy, it’s infinitely more rewarding than settling for work that is convenient, but not fulfilling.