Nobody will stop you in the hallway at work to ask if your
career provides meaning and personal fulfillment. Recognizing
that something’s missing in your vocational life and taking the
initiative to change must come from within. Serena Williamson
found a way to turn her passion — helping writers hone their
skills in order to get published — into the catalyst for a new,
more fulfilling life. Serena now runs her own small publishing
house. Software engineer Bonnie Vining needed a new career that
would value her warm personality, not suppress it. So she left
the high-tech world and opened Javalina’s Coffee and Friends.
After Anita Flegg lost her engineering job, she embarked on a
program of self-improvement. The journey led to personal
discoveries and her calling: She provides information and
support to those who, like her, suffer from hypoglycemia. I have
found that many high achievers who lose enthusiasm for their
work share common traits: - Their work has little connection to
the things they really care about. Work is a barrier rather than
a path to fulfillment. - While they may be doing something
they’re good at, it isn’t something they want to do. Unfulfilled
professionals haven’t taken time to align their abilities with
their interests. - They have never made a long-term plan to
guide them toward a more fulfilling vocational life. They tend
to set short-term goals, or set no goals at all. - As they reach
mid-life and understand the need for meaning, they turn to their
current workplace as a source of what’s missing. Most
organizations, though, are structurally incapable of providing
nourishment for the soul. So the mid-life employee’s frustration
grows. Mid-lifers like Serena, Bonnie, and Anita take stock of
their lives and careers. They develop a plan to re-ignite their
energy and enthusiasm for work. The process involves a number of
steps, but the common thread involves taking responsibility for
making life changes. Here’s how: - Identify what’s most
important to you, then develop and work a plan to get there. The
plan should involve short-term goals that lead to a long-term
objective. When Bonnie decided that engineering management was
no longer for her, she applied the discipline of the corporate
world to her new career: owning a gourmet coffee shop. Bonnie
learned everything she could about specialty coffees and how to
run a coffeehouse. She made good use of experts in the field.
She then moved quickly toward her goal of opening Javalina’s
Coffee and Friends in Tucson, Ariz. The thorough approach
increased her chance of success. - Make a list of your abilities
and interests, and then see how they match. You may be doing
something you’re good at, but don’t enjoy. Instead, find
something you enjoy and then learn what it takes to get good at
it. Serena was fortunate that her vocational calling was right
under her nose. For years she helped friends and colleagues
improve their writing skills through informal coaching sessions.
She realized that the gift for teaching others how to transform
ideas into prose wasn’t just a hobby. It was a vocational
calling. Today, she runs Book Coach Press, which has launched 13
book titles (including my own “P is for Perfect: Your Perfect
Vocational Day”). - Don’t be afraid to move toward your goals.
Many people understand the need for change but are frozen in
place. There’s fear that we may be jumping from the frying pan
into the fire. When Anita lost her engineering job, she avoided
self-pity and instead grasped the possibilities of her new
freedom. She began a journey of self-discovery that uncovered a
long-undiagnosed illness, hypoglycemia and with it a new
calling. She soon wrote a book on hypoglycemia. Now, she helps
others understand and manage the disease. Anita turned what
could have been a series of unfortunate events into a new
calling that has brought vocational passion to her life.
Remember: No one will pull you aside at work, look you in the
eye, and ask if you’re really happy with your career and your
life. The power to understand what’s missing and do what’s
necessary to find it is yours alone. Take responsibility for
change, and change will happen.
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