NickVenturella.com 9-14-14

Journey to the center

September 14, 2014

Hi ,often the hardest part of finding fulfillment, or at least some level of contentment, in one’s work/business pursuits is knowing what you truly want -- creating a vision of what that looks and feels like so you know where you’re aiming your efforts.

I encourage you to think through the following things:

What do you want / need from work you do? In other words, what work energizes you?  Are you currently doing that work?  What steps can you take to figure out how you can begin doing work that energizes you?  If some of your work energizes you, but there are parts that do not, how can you structure your work differently to lean more toward the stuff that energizes you?  To truly do work that energizes you, do you need to look at a new job, or look into starting your own business, even a side business?

Generate the means, and maintain a work / life balance, you and your family needIt’s not enough to simply do the work that energizes you, you also have to generate a certain amount of money to live (accommodate food, water and shelter), have a healthy work / life balance to enjoy your family and create options for you and your family.  Is what you’re currently doing professionally allowing you to afford your basic needs, perhaps a bit more, and allowing you to spend quality time with your family not stressed about money?  

This can be a difficult one because many of us feel we could always use extra money.  In my case, I don’t care to buy a lot of material possessions, but I like the security of money in the bank, knowing that if something came up with my family that required me to pay (a surgery for one of our pets -- that’s a real life recent example), I can more easily afford to take care of it without stressing about how I’m going to pay.

It’s about feeling comfortable enough with where your finances are to reduce your stress about the money so you can enjoy time you have with your family.

Meet the high-achieving job performance demands your clients, and/or your employer, need from you during work hours

Usually people want to do a good job at whatever it is they’re doing.  However, if they’re unappreciated even when they do a good job a person can only handle that for so long before numbing out and simply going through the motions.  We certainly want to avoid that.

This area is more about the demands put on us from a professional standpoint.  It’s easier to meet high demands if you have the other two areas above covered reasonably well.  Meaning, if you’re doing work that energizes you and it’s providing the means and work / life balance you need, it will be fairly easy to meet any high-demands of your clients and/or your employer.  However, if any of those are out of balance with each other, this third one can be difficult to achieve or maintain. 

The gooey center illustrated

Below I’ve illustrated how the three areas above come together and the ideal Tiny Career center that’s created when they overlap.  That Tiny Career center is really where you want to be.  However, know that it's a journey to reach the center -- it doesn't just happen overnight.Feel free to review the diagram, hit reply and tell me what you think.