Finding something you love to do

Discover your passion

How can you make something you love doing into your career, something that excites you and you are passionate about? I am asking for a friend, promise ??

This is something that I have been thinking about and looking into a lot recently. I think that job changes and career changes are at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds, and who can blame them, we have had a tough couple of years and a silver lining from this is that people are thinking more about what they want from life.

Work is a massive part of our lives. If you work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, you spend a nearly quarter of your week (24%) in work. So why shouldn’t it be doing something we want to do, something we enjoy, in an environment that is fun to be in.

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to do a better job at something that I love doing. Not to mention I feel good after doing it. So why can’t this be applied to work?

The role that I (Vicki) am doing at Limitless is quite different to what I, Gemma and Tanya originally expected.?For some unknown reason, after my first week back in work, I wrote a LinkedIn post on my account.?Until that point I hadn’t posted and only looked at LinkedIn about 5 times.

Tanya and Gemma saw my post on the Friday and approached me the next week to see if I would like to write some posts for this page.?The rest, as they say, is history!?Have a scroll through, you will see them??

After my initial shock, as it had never been anything I had thought about, or thought I was necessarily good at, I realised that not only do I really like doing this, in fact I LOVE doing it! ??

The more I do, the more I enjoy.?If I have more client work to concentrate on and do less writing, I don’t feel quite myself.?The balance isn’t right and I feel I’m missing something.

I know I enjoyed my previous role, so I imagined I would feel the same with this role.?But I feel so much happier in this role.?There are many factors to that, I won’t go in to them all, but one of those is simply the fact that I spend the majority of my week doing tasks that I love doing, including writing for LinkedIn – which probably explains why some of my posts are so long ??

If you are currently considering a career change, think about what you love, what you enjoy doing and where you want to be able to do those things.

It can be hard to start with, there is no denying that it is going to take some dedicated time to think through everything. If you are quite visual, the best way to think it about it is as an upside-down pyramid. To start with there will be a lot to think about and work though, but each time there will be less and less as you narrow down and focus on identifying what you want and where you want to go.

A good place to start is to make a list of what you do like to do and start to break it down. There are so many jobs you won’t even be aware of.?If you can find the industry you wish to work in, start looking deeper into that and do some networking to find out what jobs are out there. You might find something that suits you, you also might not, that is okay, you can move on to another industry and start your research.

Unless you specifically wish to move away from your current company, try looking internally. It may be that you are just in the wrong role, or wrong department. Have a chat to your Manager or HR representative about development in your current company. Find out if your company has any opportunities for job rotation or job shadowing. This could mean you can “test drive” a job before making any permanent decisions.

We all want to ensure we are working in a culture that suits us. This may be linked to a particular industry, for example, Leisure and Hospitality may involve hours outside of 9-5 which might work if you need more flexibility in your personal life.?

Speaking to people and asking questions is the best way to get the information you need. Generally, people will be honest, and ask them to be if you aren’t sure they will be. Ask open questions and keep asking questions if you want more information.

If you are reading this then you already have an excellent tool to start. Use your LinkedIn account to network, connect with people, ask questions and find out the information you need.

There are also many tools available online that could help you. There are questionnaires and surveys online that can help you discover what industry matches your personality, what job role suits your needs, what culture best fits you. At the end, there is usually more information and links to other surveys, industry jobs, people who have made changes, people talking about their job roles and jobs available.