A Meaningful Career Path Begins With Your Unique Ability

Whats the most important part of your life?

In an interview late in his life, the psychologist Sigmund Freud was asked to expound on what he felt were the most important constituents of life. His answer? “Liebe und Arbeit.” Love and work.

This is hardly a surprise: For most of human history, the meaning of work and the meaning of life intersected at survival. Work was life. When cheap energy and mechanization started us down the path of staggering increases in productivity, some philosophers and visionaries began speculating about how we would use the extra “leisure time” we would gain from all this productivity. The reality has proved much different than projected. How do we spend the “extra time?” We work. And the more advances in technology we see, the more we work. Emails, blackberries – smartphones it only means we work even when we are not at work. Could this be why most people are questioning the chosen career paths? But what else could you do?

Find Your Genius

Ultimately, the meaning in your work isn’t whether the enterprise you work for is local or global but how closely the work you perform is in alignment with what author Dick Richards labels “your genius“. In his book Is Your Genius at Work? Richards uses the term to mean that unique intersection between what you are good at (your gift) and what you love to do (your passion). As he explains it, you have just one genius, it is a positive talent, and it can be described in a two-word phrase such as “Engaging the Heart,” or “Optimizing Results.” While his rules may be a little rigid, the point is well-taken: Your genius is a transitive verb, not an adjective. It’s about doing something, not being something.

Your Career Change Path

While I think the thought of ONE genius is rigid, the generalization is true in that we all possess one, maybe two things we do better than others and it comes so naturally to us, we tend to overlook our genius. Dan Sullivan poses this interesting question to anyone contemplating a career change and wanting to create a successful life – “What would your life be like if you could get to the essence of who you are and what you’re about? What if you could focus on doing what you’re best at and love to do most? ” Can you imagine the value you could add to others? I see your increased energy, commitment and motivation to your work.  I see the impact you’ll make in the world!  Do you know what your unique ability is? Would you like to find out? It’s one of the things the people I work with discover and then choose to build their life on. It’s the key to a successful, ideal life.

Once you have identified your unique genius, your unique ability, the thing only you can do – the challenge becomes how to find that often-elusive intersection between your genius and that “unmet need” in the world, so that someone will pay you to work in a way that uses your genius. But by identifying and labeling your genius, Richards says, you gain in confidence and in the ability to articulate just how you can contribute in those situations. Your heart gets into alignment with your work, and suddenly work looks more like play.

What is the meaning of meaningful?

To answer questions like that, take the Alarm-Clock Test. If the alarm clock rings and you’re already out of bed getting ready for work because you are thrilled by what you’re doing and each new day on the job is certain to provide some worthy experience, then the chances are pretty good that you’re somewhere near that sweet spot—regardless of the size of the enterprise that employs you.

But if you’re failing the Alarm-Clock Test—not some of the time, but all the time—looking for a different kind of work makes sense. These days, more and more people in that situation are turning toward self-employment opportunities as the key to matching up purpose with genius. All the challenges of figuring out what to do and how best to do it come along with that change.  But that change should not be feared, rather it should be embraced because 10 years from now, when you’re looking back on this day as you sit at your desk feeling hopeless and trapped you know the action you need to take TODAY.

Wanna create a life you love doing work you love? If you enjoyed this article and would like to claim your FREE e-book with 5 TIPS to help you find, create and profit from work you love, click on the link to gain access and you’ll also receive as my bi-weekly newsletter, filled with helpful tips to help you master the career transition journey and first dibs on all classes and teleseminars.

Are you an ACTION TAKER? Then feel free to schedule your FR*EE Strategy Session with me by scheduling a time for us to Get Acquainted by Clicking on this link. In this session you’ll:

• Create a crystal clear vision for the work you were born to do (hint:it won’t even feel like work)
• Create a sense of clarity about which path you really want that supports the life you’re craving.
• Uncover hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success with transitioning out of your current job and into your dream career
• Leave this session renewed, re-energized, and inspired to get started finding and creating work you love.

This post was written by Charlene Nora, your Profit From Your Passions Coach and Career Transition Mentor, on 05/16/2011.