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Creating the Work You Love:
A Guide to Finding Your Right Livelihood
Elaine Voci
Copyright 2012 Elaine Voci,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1265-8
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.
DISCLAIMER
Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible; however, there may be mistakes both in content and typography. Therefore, this information should be used as a general guide and not as the ultimate source for creating the work you love.
The purpose of this book is to educate and entertain. The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions in this book.
The resource section of this book contains resources that the author believes can help you create the work you love. They are not recommendations but resources that she has collected since 1995. Please use at your own discretion.
This book contains information relating to the subject matter that is current only up to the time of the printing date. If there is something that is inaccurate or should be added in a future release, please send the correction or addition to: [email protected]
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my beautiful and talented clients - you know who you are - for always inspiring me with your courage and humor, and for allowing me to accompany you on your journey toward destiny.
Read This First
To live your life to the fullest you must find a way to put your heart and soul into your work. If your present work does not allow you to do this, find one that will.
Albert Camus
There will never be another you. The world has never seen anyone quite like you before, nor will it ever find another just like you again. You are one of a kind and you have something to contribute to this life that the world needs from you. In fact, my definition of a calling is the intersection where your unique passion meets a deep hunger in the world.
Each of us is born with a unique set of skills and a unique human potential. The mission of life is to live out that full potential. How do you do that? The great writer and philosopher Joseph Campbell famously advised that you must “follow your bliss.” Writer and physician Bernie Siegel, M.D. encouraged readers to “Allow that wonderful inner intelligence to speak through you…be what you want to be. Don’t climb the ladder of success only to find it’s leaning against the wrong wall.”
Finding your purpose in life, and doing the work you are meant to do, is a journey not for the impatient, nor for the faint of heart. It takes time to learn about yourself, your skills, and your special gifts, and it takes courage to believe that you deserve to find the work you love. The temptation is always there to just get a job, rather than find your vocation, your right livelihood. Settling for less is a choice that inevitably brings with it a dissatisfaction that won’t go away and a yearning for work that makes you feel alive and fulfilled.
Creating work you love does not begin where you think it might – in a job search. It begins, instead, with discovering who you are. Answering questions that include:
•What kind of people do you enjoy being around?
•What are the values, goals and purposes that are important to you?
•In what kind of working conditions do you do your best work?
•What cause or issue do you want your life to serve while you are here on earth?
All of these questions are important but that last one – answering how you want your life to serve the world - is the most important. After all, your life is your creation, a work of art that you will leave behind as your legacy when your journey here is done. There are many worthwhile causes in the world, many problems that need solutions; it’s a matter of finding the one you care most passionately about that will bring with it a life that has purpose and meaning to you.
Be assured that you will gain lasting security only as you become self-reliant, creatively resourceful and fully engaged with your career: these all come from within you. For no matter how much money you make, subjectively you’ll be “rich” when you are true to your vocation and “poor” when you betray it, or ignore it. When you think about it, is there any other alternative that promises you as much lasting happiness?
Introduction
I wrote this book to give you a road map to follow so you can spend your time wisely in pursuit of the work you were meant to do. It contains advice, tips, “snapshots” of the current and future marketplace, and many resources you can use to craft a career worthy of your interests, talents and passion. This book includes part of my own story of how I learned to create the work I love in a wide variety of settings in a career spanning 30+ years. I draw content from a career workshop that I designed and facilitate in my private coaching practice entitled, “Creating the Work You Love.” I have expanded that content into this e-book format so that you now can have a “seat” in the workshop without leaving home.
Changing careers was not something I knew a lot about in 1982 when I registered for a life-changing job search program offered by career coach Mike Kenney, a former Catholic priest. I defined the work that made me feel alive and engaged; I learned how to network and I revised my resume. I understood for the first time in my life that it was possible for my avocation to be my vocation – an exciting awareness that filled me with energy and optimism. When I entered Mike’s program I did not even know the job title for the training work I wanted to do, but I knew I was getting burned out as an alcohol and drug abuse counselor. I wanted to work at three things I enjoyed: teaching, writing and helping adults reach their highest potential.
I absorbed the lessons of that career program with enthusiasm; I had a lot of fun during the nine months of network interviews that it took for me to land not one, but two, job offers in my new field of corporate training. I accepted a training position at one of the largest health care organizations in the state, then known as Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Indiana, having launched my first successful career change, thanks to Mike.
Since then, I have made several career changes, and each time, I’ve acquired a deeper understanding of myself and of the power of setting our intention to create the work we love. My goal in writing this e-book is to encourage you to believe that you are the master of your career path – indeed, I believe you have an obligation to use the talents you have been given in this life to do the work you were born to do in your own unique way.
A purpose deep
