Take Control of Your Life & Career

Of late I have been contemplating what I should really do when I grow up, now that I have taken 2+ years from the rat race. It is remarkable how time flies when you are having fun, even when you do not have any income coming in! Alas I also recognize that all the things I love doing require money and don't make any money: writing, traveling, eating and drinking! Though I would not trade any of the moments in the past 2+ years for anything else, in the recess of my brain I often felt a constant urge to go back to work to have a greater purpose in life, in addition to repadding my diminished nest egg should I live to 100 yrs old, the other truth be told!!.

But now I want to work in an environment where I will truly want to get up every morning and look forward to going there, as oppose to doing it because I have to. That, I also come to realize, is a lofty proposition and a luxury that most people in the world do not have and may never attain, for most people need to put a roof over their heads, put food on their tables, and to look after their family. I recall the latter years that I spent on Wall Street being on auto pilot, not really cognizant of what day of the week or what time of the day it was, I was just rushing from one place to another, in the name of making the most amount of revenue for the firm and in turn, hopefully for myself in the form of a big bonus. All of this because I felt I had to - to pay for my mortgages and for material things.

Now for my next chapter, what is it that I really want to do and how do I find a happy medium?

In discussing my quandary with a friend, who had at one point taken 3 years off to travel and re-energize her life, she suggests that I watch a series of workshop videos on Oprah.com , titled “Take Control of Your Life and Career” by Markus Buckingham. The opening video certainly resonated with me as the participants discussed why they were there to take the workshop, I identified with some of the responses given.

http://www.oprah.com/media/20080601_orig_151007004OCOMINTROECmix2_O_VIDEO_1

My general take away from the workshops:

1) No one has the perfect job

2) Really know your own strengths (usually things you enjoy) and weaknesses (usually things you hate about yourself)

3) You will never be great at something that you hate

4) FREE (Focus, Release, Educate and Expand) your Strengths: Highly successful people build their jobs and lives around the best of their strengths

5) STOP (Stop, Team Up, Offer up, Perceive) your Weaknesses, or suck it up and do it.  You must close one door before you can open another

Though the single most interesting take away that I took from the entire segment was when Markus said: “The world is ambivalent about you and your strengths, the world doesn’t really care about you and your strengths, the world wants you to get a job done, your family wants you to get a job done… ”

So in short, while it is great to understand your strengths, but if you can’t get a job done, all the strengths and passions you have are for not, whether it is working for someone else or working for yourself.

So back to the drawing table: What is it that I want to get done with all the strengths that I have?