What If You Did What You Love To Do?

Sometimes people aren't sure where to begin when it comes to setting career goals. I think my career goal might be a good place for some to start:

Wake up everyday doing what you love to do and actually have people pay you to do it.

As I see it, there are three steps to this, and the first is probably the most difficult.

First, you have to figure out what you love to do.

I know that sounds easy, but for a lot of people it's not. "What do you love to do?" I ask, and usually I'm greeted with a blank stare. The problem is that many of us spend so much time doing things we don't like doing, or things we kind of like doing, that we run out of time. Many of us never do the things that we love, so we forget what they are, or never even discover them in the first place. But figuring out what you love to do is the first step.

The second part is doing it. You can't just know what you love to do - you have to begin making time for it. The more time you spend doing the things you love, the better you get at them, the more potential value you will have to offer.

Finally, the third part is getting people to pay you to do the thing you love. This might sound far-fetched . . . you might think about the thing you love to do and come to the conclusion that no one would ever actually pay you to do that.

All I can say is that the folks I know who 1) knew what they loved to do and, 2) did it passionately until they were better at it than almost anyone else, were soon getting paid to do that very thing.

There's no set formula for how this comes about, and everyone's path is a little different.

So how about it? Are you ready to set some career goals? Are you ready to change your life?