And when I ask that, I mean, where you are in your place in life. Why do you live where you do? Why do you go to the church, school, gym that you do? And why do you work where you do? I can tell you that as I’ve grown older there is one thing that has become very apparent to me, I’m too old to work somewhere that I don’t love! I came to the realization of that at the age of 30! Which was last year….or maybe 10 years ago.
You see I’ve spent a lot of my life working jobs that I had to because they paid well, or because I was really good at the job, not because I liked it. Take logistics for example, something I was fantastic at, but hated every minute of it.
The product was highly volatile so it was not uncommon for me to get a call on my brick of a cell phone at 2 AM and have to work for an hour or two to fix a problem. Thus the reason if you call me I have a tendency to want to get off of the phone in about 2.3 seconds. I hate the phone! I will talk face to face with you, but I’m just not that excited about a phone chat…sorry.
I will tell you that if you’re not passionate about the work that you’re doing, leave!! Discover what you are passionate about and go do it. Life is too short not to! Now, if you are completely in debt and this job pays so well that you can’t give it up, that’s another thing.
Debt robs you of your options. Be smart and get your finances in order. Work 4 jobs you might not like to get your options back. But once you do, find out what God wants you to do and go do it! for 2 reasons: one, you’ll be much happier being a part of what you believe in, and…you’re possibly holding up the seat of someone who should be where you are now.
So how do you find that thing? Well, in Dan Miller’s books 48 Days and No More Mondays he talks about the first steps you need to take to find your happy place. He quotes Frederick Buechner as having said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” So to discover that Dan says it needs to be a mix of 3 things:
- Skills and Abilities. What skills do you actually have that you can use?
- Personality Tendencies. How do you relate to people? Are you detailed or expressive? What environment are you comfortable in?
- Values, Dreams, and Passions. If money were no object, what would you enjoy doing the most?
As you answer these questions you can start to formulate what it is you love and you feel God calling you to. But before you do, try talking to your Father in Heaven. The crazy thing is He’s known for really long time where He wants you, but He’s waiting for you to ask for His opinion.