What is Your CAREER CALLING?

"Working hard at something you hate is called stress. Working hard at something you love is called passion." - Simon Sinek

Are you doing the work you were born to do?

The good news is, there is a way get paid to do work you love that matters. All you have to do is clarify your "career calling" and then do something called "career crafting."

Some people know early on what they want to do when they grow up.

The rest of us need to craft our calling instead of waiting for it to magically appear.

Here's a favorite story about what it's like to have a career calling early on.

Then I'll show how you can turn your joy into your job.

My sons grew up on Maui.?Ever night we'd go for a “walk and roll” through our neighborhood.?I would walk and Tom and Andrew would ride their big wheels, bikes or skateboards. One night, when Tom was about eight, we stopped to pick some plumerias off a tree and I asked him, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

Tom paused and then pointed to the sky and said, “Something to do with up there.”

Guess what? Tom got a degree in Aerospace Engineering, Astronomy, Physics and Math from Virginia Tech (go Hokies) and landed his dream job at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he and his team are responsible for the environment on the ISS - International Space Station. It gets better. He met and married his future wife (who has the world's coolest job title - Astronaut Scheduler) in Mission Control.?And he just got back from leading an international team at the MARS biosphere in Utah.

It gives me chicken-skin (Hawaiian for goose bumps) every time I think how Tom ended up doing exactly what he envisioned doing - when he was eight years old.

Are you thinking, "Well, good for Tom; I still don't know who I want to be when I grow up!"

Join the club. One way to get clear on what you're "called to do" is to take a good look at what you do when you're not working.

What do you do,?by choice, in your free time??

What’s FUN for you? What do you look forward to and do because you want to?

Noticing what we do when we're not working can reveal our real work - the career that is calling us. That is what happened to a colleague and client, Dana Wright.

Dana always used to “noodle and doodle.”?Instead of listening to her teachers, she would be filing in the margins of her workbooks and textbooks with what she was seeing in her mind’s eye.?Even as an adult, she always had a pen in her hand and was sketching or drawing.?It was what she did naturally.

Guess how Dana now earns her living – a?good?living in every sense of the word? She’s a graphic facilitator. ?She is the person you see at conferences and strategic retreats, listening to and facilitating the discussion while simultaneously drawing a colorful word-map/mural of what’s being said.?She literally and figuratively gets everyone on the same page with her meeting art that illustrates verbals with visuals.

Dana?turned her joy into her job - her passion into her profession. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could turn do the same??You can. The good news is, it's not too late.

Your career calling is where meaning and money converge. You can start figuing out what that might be by answering these 7 Questions to Clarify Your Career Calling.

1??What intrigues me? What do I do that puts the light on in my eyes, fills me with joy?

2. What did I love to do growing up and wanted to do as a career but was told I "needed to get my head out of the clouds" and pursue something more practical?

3.?What skills am I good at that make me feel good? (Please note: these don't have to be typical professional skills - they can be riding horses, playing the piano, gardening, etc.)

4. Who in business do I admire? I look at their career and think, "I wish I could do what they're doing."

5. Where can I provide a shortcut? Where can I expedite people's success, health or happiness? How can I save them time and money or make them time and money?

6. What don't people know how to do - that I know how to do? What aren't they good at - that I'm good at? What don't people want to do - that I actually enjoy doing?

7. What do I find meaningful, purposeful? In an ideal world, how would I like to leave a lasting legacy and make an enduring difference by contributing what I find fulfilling?

After answering these questions and clarifying what calls you, follow Pablo Picasso's advice, "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."

Actually, if you want to make your joy your job, you need to get paid for your gifts instead of giving them away for free. One way to do that is to figure out how you can get paid to teach what you do well to others or b) get paid to to do what you do well for others.

The goal is to turn your EEE - Expertise, Experience, Epiphanies - into a SHORTCUT course, product, service or business that leverages what you do well.

How do you do that? Reverse engineer how you got good at this. What is your secret sauce? Talk us through how you obtained this skill, acquired this expertise. Take people behind the scenes of how you do what you do. Outline your methodology so they don't have to start from scratch and create their own. People will pay for your shortcut because you're saving them time, money and hassle abd expediting their path to getting what they care about.

If you do this, you’ll never have to “work” another day in your life because you'll be earning a?good?living doing what you love most and do best.

By the way, it's never too late to "answer or create your career calling." I share specific ways to create a life and work you love starting today (not someday) in my new book.

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Sam Horn, Founder/CEO of the Intrigue Agency , is on a mission to help people create a meaningful life-work that adds value for all involved. Are you ready to create a more joyful job and fulfilling career? Join Sam's HOW TO POP MASTERCLASS.