Is Your Profession The Work You Were Born To Do?

Is your profession the work you were born to do? Do you even know what is the work you were called to do?

Is Your Profession The Work You Were Born To Do?

Somewhere down the line, we’re told that our work must pay well to be considered a profession. I remember reading this anecdote that Brené Brown shared.

I recently met a woman at a social media conference who is an accountant/jeweler. I was excited to meet her, because I had bought a beautiful pair of earrings from her online. When I asked her how long she had been a jeweler, she blushed and said, “I wish. I’m a CPA. I’m not a real jeweller.”

I thought to myself,” I’m wearing your earrings right now, not your abacus.“

When I pointed to my ears and said, “Of course you’re a jewellery maker!” She just smiled and replied, “I don’t make very much money doing that. I just do it because I love it.”

As ludicrous as that sounded to me, I get it. I hate calling myself a writer because it doesn’t feel legitimate to me. I’m not writer enough. Overcoming self-doubt is all about believing we’re enough and letting go of what the world says we’re supposed to be and supposed to call ourselves.

From Brené Brown’s : Gifts Of Imperfection

I remember being dissatisfied with my work and yet not having the courage to make a change. Moving from a secure bank job to work with young people made no sense to a lot of people. Then I came across Nick Williams’ book – Unconditional Success: Loving the Work You Were Born To Do– which made a big impression on my life. To my mind Nick’s idea of ‘work’ resonated with my idea of ‘vocation’ – being who you were meant to be. His book challenged me to look at areas in my life that needed to be worked on, to dream again and to dare greatly.

“We are encouraged to think about how we will find a job and make employers say yes to us in a world where we believe there aren’t enough jobs and we’ll have to compete. So we marginalize our creativity, our spirit and joy.”

Nick Williams

In the last twelve odd years, I’ve settled into the work that I feel I’m born to do – write and train. And the best part is that when I follow my heart, money follows too.

I’ll leave you with another quote from Nick. I hope it will encourage you to think about your profession and if it is bringing you the joy and meaning you need it to.

The key to the work we were born to do is that we can change our attitude, our state of mind, our motivation, even the consciousness with which we work. We can make the transition from working with resentment, boredom or dissatisfaction to gratitude, pleasure and happiness. In doing so we can see our existing work differently and even begin to transform it, see new possibilities and begin to enjoy it in much greater ways. Changing our attitude may or may not ultimately involve us in actually changing our job.”