When I work with clients, their main objective is to identify/find their dream job. That’s the easy step. When they first come to us, most professionals struggle with finding their purpose, their sweet spot, their God-given gift but when they go through the Dream Job process, that big empty space, that question mark, of not knowing what to do, suddenly becomes clear.
In your life right now, if you’re not where you thought you’d be, based on working with so many people, here are the top 5 mistakes people make and why they don’t follow the path to their dream job.
Mistake #1 – Still struggling to find their dream job
Lots of us spend time, lots of money and lots of effort planning a holiday for (generally a few weeks) but rarely do we spend the time to consider our life’s contribution, our work and figuring out what that is.
Many of us spend years and thousands of dollars going to university, college (minimum of 3 – 4 years, spending at least $15K + for a degree), so that we can get a good job. But that good job, wasn’t so good after all. Why? Gallup did a study and found 87% of the global population is dissatisfied with their work job. So part of embarking on our dream job is to first find what on earth it is. We all yearn to make a difference, to make a contribution and be rewarded financially, so find what your God-given gift is and how you can translate that into your dream job.
Mistake #2 – Not knowing what else is possible
Once clients identify their dream job, they usually keep their mindset wrapped around how that position, job title or role is currently being delivered. The whole point of your dream job (especially with the abundance of technology) allows us to un-box the conventional way of delivering your dream work in other ways that can meet your lifestyle needs. SO ask yourself, “how else could I deliver my work”?
As an example, one of our clients was an author. Now books don’t make a lot of money, and yet this client had an important message to share with the world through her book. We taught this client how she could take her book, create a training program from it and use the published book as the text for her training program. We helped her work out a way that allows her to write, add value to the world, get her message out, make her contribution and generate an income stream from it.
Mistake #3 – Winging It
During Uni, you had a plan. Maybe not one that you personally created, but your degree or course set out what you needed to do to meet your goal of becoming a graduate.
In the workplace there are titles, ranks, responsibilities and pay brackets that let you know there is a plan to follow if you want to progress to the next level
The same is true for your dream job. To progress towards it, you need a plan in place to make it happen, fast. What needs to happen, how much time you need to allocate to specific tasks, what are the steps involved, how will you know you’re on the right track, specifically (of course you’ll know once you’re in your dream job, but what are the smaller steps that lead to the dream job that you can identify and that will show that you are on track).
Unlike the workplace or Uni, you can review your plan and change it. Why would you do this? Because as you your likes, tastes, needs etc. change, so too should your dream job. It should evolve as you evolve as an individual. When working with clients, as we take clients through our program, their plans expand as they gain a greater awareness of what’s possible.
We have clients that have gone from wanting to be an employee in a new industry to wanting to learn and explore their options for a small business, so we review what business would be the best for them and how they would monetise it, (just like the author mentioned above). So you want to be reviewing your plan to align with the changes you experience.
Mistake #4 – Allowing our Mental Muscle to go Limp
I was recently asked “When I was younger, I didn’t fear anything, if I wanted something, I went out and made it happen. Nowadays, I’m cautious, hesitant, even somewhat doubtful that I’ll get to what I want. How come I was so courageous before, but not so much now”?
We’ve all been there, scared, timid, not wanting to make a mistake.
The difference between then and now is that as time has progressed. Maybe you’ve had kids, maybe you’ve been in the same industry, or role for some time, maybe you’ve enjoyed the so called ‘security’ of a job and now you’ve been made redundant. Whatever the situation, you’ve probably become used to a routine of home/work/lifestyle and because of that routine you stopped being curious and you stopped learning. And therefore your mind muscle has sagged, become limp.
Let me explain. When you go to the gym to shape your body and get healthy that’s great. But if you stop going to the gym for 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 6 months etc. all the work that you put into sculpting your muscles, getting fit goes south because you didn’t keep up with the regimen of keeping fit, so your muscles get limp because they haven’t been worked out. So now, you need to get back into the pattern of working out, going to the gym so you can get your body to where it was before and then build on that.
The same is true for our mind. If you’re finding yourself hesitant, doubtful it’s because it’s been a while since you’ve worked out the mind muscle and as a result it’s become limp (just like when you stop going to the gym).
All it means is that in your plan you need to include ways to work-out your mind-muscle. Just like you challenge your body and muscles in the gym so that you don’t plateau, you need to become curious, start learning and act on the learning to build your mind muscle. In other words, you need to exit your comfort zone.
Mistake #5 – No Accountability
When we work with clients, this is a BIG one!
When we’re working on our own, it’s so easy to get off track, get caught up by the shiny object syndrome (“oh what if I did that” ,“or that” etc.) we then forget where the track was altogether and feel guilty and sad because we didn’t make any progress in any direction because there are so many things we could do and we just get caught up with life and blame the traffic, our schedule, our lousy job or anything else as a reason as why “we’re not where we want to be”.
Our dream job will motivate us, it will stimulate us and it will provide the meaning and contribution we’ve been seeking BUT if we hit any bumps or get any bruises, It’s commitment that lands you, your dream job. And being accountable keeps you committed even when the motivation wears off, commitment married with accountability is a slam dunk towards your dream job.
I’ve realised a truth and I remind myself of by saying:
“Motivation gets you going, Commitment creates the breakthrough”
These 5 mistakes to watch out for is usually the difference between someone living their dream job or merely keeping it as a dream.
Now, that you know the mistakes, are you ready to find your ACTUAL Passion and gain the clarity, confidence and contribution you want to make in your corner of the world?
If so, we have workshops in 6 cities on the Passion Finder™. To find out more and register go to:
Rita J.