No one will stop you in the hallway at work and ask if your career offers meaning and personal fulfillment. The realization that something is missing in your professional life and the initiative to change must come from within.
Serena Williamson has found a way to turn her passion - helping writers hone their skills to get published - into a catalyst for a new, more fulfilling life. Serena now runs her own small publishing company.
Software engineer Bonnie Vining needed a new career where her warm personality was valued, not suppressed. So she left the high-tech world and opened Javalina's Coffee and Friends.
After Anita Flegg lost her engineering job, she began a self-improvement program. The journey led to personal discoveries and her calling: informing and supporting people who, like her, suffer from hypoglycemia.
I've found that many high achievers who lose enthusiasm for their work share common characteristics:
Their work has little to do with the things they really care about. Work is more of an obstacle than a path to fulfillment.
They may be doing something they're good at, but it's not what they want to do. Unfulfilled professionals haven't taken the time to align their skills with their interests.
They've never created a long-term plan that would lead them to a more fulfilling professional life. They tend to set short-term goals or no goals at all.
When they reach mid-life and realize the need for meaning, they turn to their current job as a source of what they lack. However, most companies are structurally unable to provide food for the soul. Thus, the frustration of midlife employees grows.
Mid-life employees like Serena, Bonnie and Anita take stock of their lives and careers. They develop a plan to reignite their energy and enthusiasm for work. The process involves a series of steps, but the common thread is taking responsibility for making life changes. Here's how:
Figure out what's most important to you, and then develop a plan to achieve that goal. The plan should include short-term goals that lead to a long-term goal. When Bonnie decided that technical management was no longer for her, she applied the discipline of the corporate world to her new career: managing a gourmet café. Bonnie learned everything she could about specialty coffee and running a coffee house. She used the services of experts in the field. Then she moved swiftly toward her goal of opening Javalina's Coffee and Friends in Tucson, Arizona. Being thorough increased her chances of success.
Make a list of your skills and interests, and see if they match. You may find yourself doing something you're good at but don't enjoy. Instead, find something you enjoy, and then learn what it takes to become good at it. Serena was fortunate that her professional calling was right under her nose. For years, she helped friends and colleagues improve their writing skills through informal coaching sessions. She realized that the gift of teaching others how to turn ideas into prose wasn't just a hobby. It was a professional calling. Today, she runs Book Coach Press, which has published 13 book titles (including my own book, P is for Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day).
Don't be afraid to move toward your goals. Many people understand the need for change, but are frozen in place. They're afraid of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. When Anita lost her engineering job, she avoided self-pity and instead embraced the possibilities of her new freedom. She embarked on a journey of self-discovery, discovering a long-undiagnosed condition, hypoglycemia, and with it a new calling. Soon after, she wrote a book about hypoglycemia. Now she helps others understand and manage the disease. Anita has turned what could've been a series of unfortunate events into a new vocation that's turned her life into a professional passion.
Remember, no one is going to pull you aside at work, look you in the eye and ask if you're truly satisfied with your career and your life. It's solely in your power to understand what you're missing and do what it takes to find it. Take responsibility for change, and change will come.
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