Defining Your Dream
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Taking a break from a conference workshop, my friend Diana said to me, “I have no real talents. I can’t write or sing or design or anything. So, what if I have NO special abilities? How do I know what my passion is? I’d like to find a way to make a living by following my favorite things. I’m tired of drifting from job to job. But I don’t even know what I most want to do.”
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Life can be puzzling that way. We sometimes deny ourselves the very things that we want the most. And we don’t always take the time to learn about ourselves. Many people postpone pursuing leisure activities until retirement. I asked Diana, “When have you given yourself the chance to learn about your deepest desires?” Turns out that summer camp was the last time that Diana tried out any new, fun activities. Beyond that time, first school, and then work kept Diana busy but also took her further away from herself.
Most of us grow up believing that being an adult means it’s time to give up the fun, get serious, and get to work at a job, any job. For children, recess is fun, school is work. For adults, vacation is fun, work is, well, work. In all ways, fun and work are opposites. But here’s the strange part: Most people feel compelled to say that they enjoy their work even when they actually despise their jobs. |
Joy in what you do is not an added bonus to your job; it is the first sign of health. |
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When Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation,” it’s a desperation born of denial of true self. Why should it be a socially determined act to deny that your job is unpleasant? Who says that people should pretend that they like what they do for a living?
You CAN regain the sense of having fun with your daily work. First step, begin to think differently.
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Read on about Thinking Differently -->
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Chapter 1a