How Do I Find It?

I facilitated a workshop yesterday for a group of high school students. It was absolutely amazing! There were truly some brilliant minds in that room - the intensity of the questions asked, the comments and solutions offered were truly above and beyond what some adults can even articulate. Let me say this - whatever you do, we have to give back to our youth. They deserve to know the truth about themselves, their hopes and their dreams.

The question was asked by one of the students, how do I find my passion? Immediately I thought of Farrah Gray's Get Real, Get Rich:

1) What comes easy to you, but harder to others? (Think of things you're complimented on, this may be a special talent that you are called weird for like cooking amazing meals, flower arranging, or talking - like myself! This is your natural talent, that you might be taking for granted.)

2) What would you do nonstop and never have to get paid for it? (The joy of making money is fleeting, imagine having a great time making the money for whatever you're doing but the money is just a bonus.)

3) How can you be of service and give back to others? (The more we give, the more we receive. Giving back can include giving money, volunteer hours, etc. You can add value to society simply by operating in your talent and fulfilling a need that exists.)

A few years before I had read Farrah's book, I'd spent a lot of my free time trying to figure out what some of my key talents were. Though I had a knack for numbers, I wouldn't exactly say I was passionate about them. This is where another valuable resource came in:

Do What You Are by Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. It's a book of career suggestions based on a personality assessment. You can take a quick version of the assessment here.

Based on the four letter code you get as a result, you can then go to this website for more information on potential careers and a strengths and weaknesses assessment.

Honestly and truly, this book worked wonders for my life. At the time, I had just gotten fired from my accounting job and I was really looking for something meaningful to do with my life. I knew accounting wasn't it, especially since I had just spent the last month or so looking at myself in the work bathroom mirror at work and saying "I am not an accountant. I don't look or feel like an accountant. I can't believe I'm working in corporate america for some company that does nothing for my community. I should have went to law school." Literally, these were the thoughts I had been having. So when I got fired, it was a blessing. I would finally be forced to find out what my interests were, to find out what I was really interested in and what I truly wanted to do with my life.

On February 14, 2007 my car slid on black ice and was hit by 2 semi trucks. Though I was in graduate school at the time working on leadership development, which I loved - that further solidified the fact that I had to work in an arena I was passionate about.

As much as we'd like to believe we are independently thinking creatures, sometimes it really does take a literal PUSH to get you where you are destined to be in life. That's why I can't really hate on the family I was raised in, the haters I endured, the horrible teachers and managers I've had, the accident, etc. Because had it not been for them, I would be complacent. I would have been okay staying in the same places I had always been in, never moving forward, never getting better.