Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. – Confucius

Sometimes I look back to where I used to be and where I am now, and while I still have a long way to go and many many more dreams to pursue, I have carved out my work situation in a way that I get to do what I specifically love doing for a living and I want to share with you how I’ve done that. Aside from entrepreneurship where we can start our own business doing what we love, there are some tips and tricks on how you can turn your current job, into one you will at least enjoy a lot more (that’s if you’re currently in a job you don’t necessarily like, or would prefer to be in a different job). Which will eventually lead to new opportunities.

I’m really only speaking from my own experience, but I’ve witnessed other people do the same, so I will share this anyway. And I’m fully aware that some work environments may not allow for any of these techniques, but if it helps one person, I am happy 🙂

Five Steps To Guide You Toward Your Dream Job

1. The number one rule you first need to adopt is to make decisions that are in line with your dreams and values, and do not compromise that. Check out this post on how to make difficult choices and this post on living according to our values. That means knowing what those values are and doing a little soul searching. Take some time to write out a list of what you value the most, what your strengths are and what fires you up.

2. Look at your current job situation and see how you can use those values and skills to enhance the current working environment or job role. For example, my value of connecting and developing people was important to me in a workplace. My first ‘job’ out of university was in Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). This is a quite technical, data oriented part of HR. Definitely not my interest or strong suit. But I had a passion for people and making them happy in the workplace. A few things I did to incorporate those skills were:

• Get my entire team to do an “About Me” powerpoint presentation over a conference call to get to know one another (most of us were remote workers and we didn’t know each other at all). This brought us closer together as a team.
• I joined the Events Committee and took part in creating fun company events or lunch and learns.
• I became the Diversity Champion Lead of our Vancouver Location to help promote and celebrate the diverse cultures of our company and set up related events.
• I had/have a huge love of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), so I set up a team building event to discover my team’s working styles so we could communicate and work better together

None of these were related to my actual job role. And I made sure they didn’t take time and work away from what I actually had to get done. Most of it was done on my spare time.

Another example is from a friend of mine who worked in the IT department, but had a huge passion for health and exercise. He created a company exercise team/program where employees could participate in various sports or exercises during lunch hour, or various monthly challenges like the Monthly Ab Challenge. This would build upon his passion of  helping people live a healthy lifestyle even though it isn’t directly related to his current job. Check out his blog here.

The main point is to keep building on your skills by adding new things.

3. Add these new special skills to your Resume. Now that you’ve got some experience under your belt related to what you love to do, add them to your Resume.

4. Connect with people who have similar interests and values. Through the power of filtering, when we obsess over certain things, we start to open doors that lead us in that direction. Someone, somewhere, will be looking for someone with your skill set. Meet lots of people. Join meetup.com and attend events and meet like-minded people. Keep your eyes open for job opportunities that allow you to grow your skills and apply for them. That’s where finding a good mentor can help you get there.

One note about rejection and failure. Try not to worry about it. As much as we hate it, it will happen at one point or another. But the opposite of happiness or success is not failure, it’s boredom. Just keep sticking to your guns, because the people who reject us aren’t a good match for us anyway. We want to be in a situation where our passion is appreciated.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4. Eventually you will keep building and building to the point that you’ve flipped your working situation around. You’ll either end up in a new job that allows you to build upon your strengths and passions, or if you’re lucky enough your current job will build a space for you to flourish. This might even lead you to starting your own side business because now you have actual ‘work experience’ to back you up. The road can go in several directions from this point, but that’s what makes life so exciting!

That’s it! I just want to mention again that Step number one is the most important, and you have to be really strict on choosing things that line up with where and who you want to be. Sometimes you’ll be presented with a shiny opportunity, but it won’t be related to where you want to go. Don’t get side tracked. Stay on course and you’ll eventually end up where you need to be.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. If you liked what you read, please subscribe!