A Really Weird Joke That Helped Me Find My Passion
A few weeks ago I wrote about step 1 to finding your passion and/or changing your job when you have NO idea about what to do next.
To sum it up: go out and interview/chat with people and see what ideas/opportunities, and interests come your way.
In your network, out of your network, it doesn’t matter – reach out, schedule coffee and see who says yes! Talking to people is a great way to stimulate your mind, get you off your couch and into action, and most importantly: make you feel like you are making progress (yay! progress!).
What happens next?
But what happens next? Well, if you have tons of ideas (with or without talking to people), and you aren’t sure where to begin, the next step is to start a little career safari.
Start researching the things that seems most interesting and awesome for you. If you have an interest in graphic design, download a program or take some training.
If you have a specific job or organization in mind, start talking to them directly and seeing what skills you need to be an amazing candidate (bonus: you also build your network this way!). Keep going and see what continues to interest you.
Some things will fall away, and some will become even more interesting!
I mentioned that one of the things that I did was talk to people. While doing that, I got really pissed off by one of my contacts who made it clear that there was still a boys club in one career field I was pursuing. It got me thinking and laughing with a consulting colleague – we kept joking about how we wished more things catered to women.
It was one of those conversations that went something like this:
“Why aren’t there more women’s bathrooms in theaters! It takes us forever – we miss the show!”
“Tell me about it – not to mention good lighting. Are we supposed to be applying our make up in the dark? NO!”
“There should also be better porn for women. What happened to good story telling!”
“Maybe we have missed our calling – we should shoot sexy videos with outstanding plot and dialogue!”
Brainstorming Helps
And as we laughed and joked it got my mind going…where are the good restaurants with bathroom lighting? And I wished restaurant reviews would tell me if the bar staff is cute or if it’s a good place for a second date in addition to whatever is on the menu. And why weren’t there more hilarious stories about dating in MY city?
And I thought: “I would LOVE to do that!”
And I kept thinking about it….
And so CityGirlsWorld was born. I wanted something that was an outlet for my creativity – something that seemed fun, and something that I could do in my spare time (and would work with my social life). Starting a blog seemed brilliant. I could rope in a friend and go after what I wanted!
We started off with crazy optimism and absolutely no clue. It was fun, it was stressful, it was exciting, and mostly – it gave me a sense of purpose. I finally felt like I was going somewhere.
And for awhile we were! We were featured in the Washingtonian and picked up by different blogs and finally learned what twitter was all about. We made friends and had photo-shoots and told all of our dating stories. I learned so much about writing, and networking, and business blogging that my head was full. And the whole time I stayed fully employed as a consultant, so I kept my income.
You Grow And Learn
But after awhile, my friend and I realized that we had different goals, and that in some ways we had outgrown CityGirls. She was no longer single, and I was no longer in a relationship and looking to move. She wanted to work less at blogging, and I wanted to write about something more meaningful to me, and touch people’s lives personally. And that was when I stumbled into coaching and ultimately the Revolutionary Club.
But stumbled is a wrong word…my path and willingness to try things had finally taken me there. I firmly FIRMLY believe that there would be no Revolutionary Club without CityGirls. I learned so much about myself, my skills, the way that I work, and what made me excited (definitely working for myself, definitely service focused, definitely still involving writing). The experience I acquired helming a blogness I use today in my business. The knowledge I gained pursuing one interesting passion led me to another even bigger one.
So the point is that it’s not always about finding THE passion, but sometimes A passion can lead you to the road where you are meant to be. And if a reference to porn can lead me to an awesome business, you can SO do this!
Bored at work and want a simple way to find your passion? Sign up for a free workbook that teaches you 6 simple steps to finding work you love right here. You know you want in.
