“If you choose a “job” you love, you’ll never have to “work” a day in your life.” ~Confucius
I recently read Bud Caddell’s blog post, “How To Be Happy in Business.” The venn diagram he used to illustrate his point reminded me of a diagram I saw in a video I posted last year titled “Do What You Love,” by the author of “The Ten Faces of Innovation,
This simple diagram mirrors my own beliefs on how to be happy in business. One particular concept that stands out for me in the diagram is: “Learn to Say No.” Doing what I love sometimes means saying no to projects that I’m not passionate about, EVEN if it’s something I know how to do well. When I work on projects that are meaningful to me, I find that I’m more engaged, I’m more productive and I’m at my happiest. Frankly, for me, work that has a purpose really doesn’t feel like work at all.
But, what if the work I want to do requires skills I don’t have?
This may sound a bit cliché but, my mother always says “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” If you don’t have a specific skill you need in order to be successful, you can always learn a new skill!
Invest in yourself by attending professional development conferences or by taking specialized training classes in your field. Professional training will always payoff no matter what industry you work in. Chances are you may already possess some transferable skills that may shorten your learning curve. If you can figure out how to marry what you want to do, to what you do well and get paid to do it… you have a winner!
One of the tools I use to visualize the things I want to accomplish, and identify areas where I may need additional training, is a vision board. The process of creating the board helps me to focus more clearly on the goals I set for myself. So needless to say, I was THRILLED to find that Bud created a poster using his clever little diagram… I will definitely be adding this poster right next to my vision board!
Image credit: Budd Caddell
Very illustrative! Thanks for sharing Pamela!
Thanks for your comment, Sonny! I’m glad you enjoyed the post