Lately many people have been reaching out to me for direction regarding what to do next in their lives.

“I’m pregnant and recently laid off with no benefits. I have bills to pay – of course a baby on the way and I’m not sure that I could get back into that line of work with the hours required. Can I find meaningful work?”

“I work for myself but I still think that there’s something more to this life that I’m living. Can you help me find that?”

“I took a job to help me pay down my debts but now this job is a nightmare and I’m completely off track regarding what I said was my dream career. Now I’m frustrated and feel as if I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. Should I leave this job to pursue my dreams? Will my dream job pay the bills?”

If you’ve been or are in any of the situations above you know what is the default reaction right? Yes – worry! It’s one thing if we’re dissatisfied but the money is still coming. It’s another thing when the money source dries up completely or we no longer feel excited to put the effort out to make the money or making the money in and of itself becomes burdensome.

Take a time out and ask yourself some hard questions or as the prophet Haggai said “give careful thought to your ways.” Haggai 1 verses 5 and 6 says “You have planted much but have harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are never warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

The most challenging thing in this life is to take 100% responsibility for our lives. Only then can we begin to take charge and make changes in our favour. Until then we can speak a litany of unfairness and victim-itis until the cows come home – perhaps feel temporarily better but remain in pain for a very long time.

It was Confucius who said “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” And he was right except he didn’t describe HOW to discover and get the jobs you love. People have struggled for centuries to figure out what jobs and work positions they really love, and more importantly HOW to get them.

The first step you need to take is to become “The World’s Leading Expert on You”.

• Make a list of all the things that have been helping you – that is – producing positive results.
• Make a list of all the habits that have been harming you. Begin replacing those habits one by one with habits that are rewarding and would eventually contribute to your success.
• Make a list of your strengths. What are some things that you are naturally good at? What do friends and family usually praise you for?
• And finally – enlist the help of a coach, who will be able to guide you and help you in making the changes you need to make to reinvent you and ultimately your work life.

So many people are working in positions that are not best suited for them. Most people have difficulty getting the best jobs because they are using two work selection processes that assure failure:
1. The Trial and Error Method-The most widely used method that is based upon random chance with heavy emphasis on error. This method has shown a success rate of less than 5% especially when using the “send out lots of resume’s” program hoping and praying that one would stick.
2.  The Please Others Method-Where people follow careers to meet the wishes of others (parents, friends) and not themselves.

Once you discover and know and understand yourself then you will finally be able to get off the merry-go-round of chasing happiness to discover and create what has been very possible all along – doing work that you love and getting paid well to do it!