The start of success is shaking off the thoughts of others and going after your heart. 
Discover what you’re passionate about and go after that. In Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, Frederick Buechner writes, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” When your passion meets the need of God’s children, that’s what you’re called to do!
How do you discover what your purpose in life is? Start by answering these questions:
– What gets you excited and makes you happy?
– Is anyone doing it? Research others who’ve made it happen and find out how they did it.
– Can you make money? If so, develop a business plan and start working part-time, or after your day job, until you’ve got a sustainable business that demands your full attention.
I want you to go after your passions but not if you can’t make a living doing so. That becomes a miserable lifestyle. For more information on discovering your true calling, check out my LifePlan event. In this intense two-day, one-on-one with me, you will clearly define your life purpose, and learn to organize and balance around the life mission God has for you. It’s literally a process of discovery.
Great video, Chris, and I’m so glad you emphasized the part about how meeting people’s needs in the marketplace is what helps folks transition their passion from being a hobby to being a career. I think that’s the part that is usually left out of the “follow your dreams” speeches. There needs to be an overlap time.
I started KidsOutAndAbout.com as a community web site in Rochester, NY in 2001, as a way to meet my own needs to find out all of the great stuff happening for kids and families in my own city. I did it while running my other business (as a technology consultant to the mail order industry); that was my job, but this became my passion.
The challenge was how to transition a free web site that was being used by thousands of parents in my region to a viable, scalable business would make actual money, without being one of those junky flashy-flashy ad sites. That took years of running it as a hobby only, and building up the audience to the point where I could pick and choose the appropriate advertisers to make more visible on the site at an extra cost. See, I had to realize that the web site was my FREE product to my readers, but the AUDIENCE was actually the product being sold to advertisers. I had to make sure that both were of the highest quality. Only after we had perfected the business model in Rochester did we start expanding around the country.
So: When you identify your passion, think very very hard, and talk with smart people you trust, about how you can use it to create a product that people will actually pay for. Work like heck for a long time, tinkering, looking at the numbers, and then tinkering some more. Be smart about connecting with the right customers. And then, patience, patience, patience. Just don’t let up on the hard work while being patient. Fortunately, that’s where passion can carry you through.
Powerful Powerful stuff Deb!!! I love it!!!
Thanks for sharing, Debra, this is encouraging!
Question: Can you really figure this all out in two days of LifePlan? Because I’ve been trying for quite some time 🙂
I remember one piece of advice my dad gave me when I was in my early twenties. Find a job that pays the bills and another one that makes you happy. Fortunately mine does both. However… I still find myself trying to pursue this “side business” like it’s going out of style. I don’t believe now that the job that pays the bills needs to be different than the one that brings you joy.
I’m in the middle. I’m working on getting the boat closer to the dock. Part of this process has been blogging, podcasting, and interacting online. I have also been doing some work for friends to fine tune my skills and built a reputation. I’m working at cultivating relationships and I’m starting to see a little bit of fruit budding on the branches. I’m praying that this is the year of transition!
Go Josh!!!!
I am in middle of the dive off the cliff into the bay in terms of doing what I love, which is writing. Thanks for the encouraging word to keep moving forward!!!
Thanks Chris. It is frequently encouraging and discouraging to hear this kind of thing because I am, like Josh here, trying to “get the boat closer to the dock” by doing a bunch of freelancing and continuing to network and build relationships. At times though, I feel as though I might have too many passions… and have trouble narrowing the scope. Is that a bad thing?? Having a young family with several small kids, I am struggling to find the right balance between the hustle (going double time doing my full-time gig and freelancing) and the strain that can put on my wife and our family. Having listened to many people say it sometimes takes years to make that break thru, any encouragement for a guy who feels like he’s halfway there but can’t see the other side yet?