All around us people are discontent with their jobs and, as a result, their lives.
As children we are told that we can be whatever we want to be. Then, life happens and it proves to be much harder than that.
You wake up one day, and your life mainly consists of going to a job you despise and praying for it to be six o’clock already.
Most people are dumbfounded when it comes to figuring out how to find a job they love and still make money.
Scott Dinsmore founded a platform called Live Your Legend. It inspired people to find their passion and connect them to career possibilities.
Mr. Dinsmore gave a Ted talk about this exact thing: How to find work you love. Have a look at his talk below, or read on for the highlights.
According to Scott, A majority of the population is not happy with what they’re doing. That’s because people are not choosing what to do; they get told what to do.
Everyone believes that it’s standard to be miserable in your job. You do what you have to do, to bring home a paycheck.
There is this epidemic of complacency.
Dinsmore recounts that, when starting out in the workforce, he was told it didn’t matter if he liked his job. It was all about building his resume. He quotes Warren Buffett saying, “Taking jobs to build up your resume is the same as saving up sex for old age.” It was then that Dinsmore embarked on the adventure of making Living Your Legend.
This platform took more than four years to become successful, but he made it. It is on this platform that he shares his advice on how to achieve finding work you love.
First, you must figure out what your passion is. No one is going to tell you what your passion is. You have to look within yourself and think about something that you would love doing every day of your life. What is something that would bring you joy no matter what the salary is?
A considerable issue with society is that we are all made to believe that success is the same across the board. A huge step in finding your passion and a job you love is defining what success is to you. Scott Dinsmore provides three tips that help you to do this:
- What are your unique strengths? - A person must be honest with himself and determine what he is great at and what he does terribly. What is unique to him as an individual?
- What are your values? - What is important to you? Do you care about friends, health, personal time or success, and achievement?
- Finally, what are your experiences? - Think about your everyday life experiences and apply it to figuring out what you want and what’s right for you. Use that life experience to determine what your passion is, what you’re exceptional at doing and what you’re awful at doing.
Once you have discovered your passion, you must work towards turning it into a career. People end up on this cookie-cutter path in life because of the fear of failing. We convince ourselves, or people around us say, that things are impossible. Through the journey of life, things discourage us from believing that we could have what we want in life.
Everything that is, was once thought to be impossible until someone did it. Dinsmore talks about how everyone thought that surpassing the four-minute mile was impossible until Roger Bannister broke it. Then, two months later 16 more people did it too. Impossibility is a state of mind. You have to be confident and tell yourself you can do it; otherwise, you’ll give up before you’ve even started.
To achieve your definition of success, you have to be motivated. Surround yourself with people who inspire you. That inspiration will light a fire under you and encourage you to achieve what may be deemed impossible.
Dinsmore tells a story about how he swam in the San Francisco Bay across the Golden Gate Bridge. He has a fear of dark blue murky water. It was especially dark that day due to inclement weather. After receiving encouraging words from his friend Jonathan, who was 13, he jumped out of the tugboat and into the water.
Dinsmore’s point is that if we all had a belief in ourselves and what we could achieve, there would be nothing stopping us.
At this point in his talk, Dinsmore discusses how Living Your Legend had not grown at all in four years, and he was almost ready to shut it down when he went to San Francisco.
There he met inspiring people who had these unique lifestyles that consisted of blogs, websites, and businesses that inspired people and allowed them to do what made them happy.
He continued expanding Living Your Legend and, after a year and a half, his platform became a success having over 30,000 users.
Dinsmore quotes Jim Rohn saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Don’t give up on your goals. You shouldn’t compromise what you want because it’s not working out. Change your surroundings, not your goals.
We live in a society that encourages complacency. Some people remind others of what they can’t do instead of what they’re capable of. People push you to take positions you hate because it’s what society has deemed a necessary evil to survive.
The world will blame your lack of “success” on not working hard enough, but the standard of working hard has become warped. People expect you to work in a job you loathe and are over-qualified for, getting minimal pay and working overtime for no compensation. Get away from people trying to push you into something that makes you unhappy. Define your personal view of success and strive for that instead.
There are a lot of things in this world that are beyond our control. We can’t control the recession or getting let go from a job, but we can control ourselves. Everything that Dinsmore discusses is 100% in our hands.
Some people may think that there’s no opportunity in their passion. We live in a new world where you can do whatever you want. Dinsmore explains that the only thing that limits possibility is imagination. You can write about your favorite thing in a blog. You can have a Youtube channel. You can even create your own business of selling wood-burning designs if that’s your passion. Anything that you love, there is some application for it that can be successful – you just have to get creative.
Ultimately, if people in this world do what they love, they will inspire others to do the same. It has become the status quo to hate your job. Memes are plastered all over social media sharing this consensus. Eighty percent of people are unhappy with their jobs. We spend a majority of our lives at work. As trite as it may sound, the old saying is that if you love what you do, then you’ll never work a single day in your life.
Scott Dinsmore’s movement is attempting to facilitate this notion. Be inspired and inspire others. Tell people they can do anything because it’s true. Stop encouraging people to waste their lives at professions they hate just because it’s steady money and they’re building their resume. They’re building a resume that will only allow them to continue working in a career that makes them unhappy.
Think about how the world would evolve if people did what inspired them and encouraged others to do the same. Dinsmore reiterates his creed and finishes with one final question: What is the work you can’t not do?