Fueling your Passion Outside of your Dream Job

Are you working a job or are you working in your vocation? Have you heard of this concept of having a vocation? Isn’t your vocation the same as a job? No my friend, a vocation is the calling of your life. Now that might sound a little woowoo but let’s think about it a bit in the context of last week and finding your passion at work (if you haven’t read it click here to go back). That same fire that you had when you were doing something that truly lit you up and inspired you for work is the thing that is inspiring your vocation. For an added twist, your vocation can be expressed in different ways. Let me explain, perhaps you know that working in the role you’re in now isn’t the best option for you but what are you supposed to do, quit? It feels like everyone around you either hates what they’re doing or is finding their dream job and you’re just hoping to find something in the middle. You need to find passion in your work but that doesn’t always mean you have to (or have the financial option to) just up and quit to find something you love. It’s not enough to just make money and it’s not enough have a passion. To some degree, you need both.

So this week let me tell you a story about me, my vocation, and how each move I’ve made has been in pursuit of advancing my personal mission. I was fortunate enough to recognize what I wanted to do when I was still in high school. Now, before you roll your eyes, I do not think it is really that important at what age people recognize this and I only bring it up here to aid in development of the timeline. I did know what I wanted to do but I didn’t know exactly who I wanted to help or how I would get it done. Even with just one leg of the trifecta I was able to directionally impact my career trajectory, simply because I knew I wanted to lead leaders. It started when I realized I needed more volunteerism for my college applications, so I started my own club where high schoolers would go and serve lunch to elderly people at the community center in town, pack up meals for home bound participants, and wash dishes afterward. (Outwardly, I was doing great work for the community. Keep in mind though I was probably 16 and did the right thing for a completely selfish reason.) I knew going into it I didn’t love serving lunch and washing dishes, I was checking a box to get some credit. After a few weeks though… I still didn’t like washing dishes. I did like organizing the kids who also wanted to lead in their communities (some potentially for better reasons than me). From there I went on to lead people every chance I got, in college classes, jobs, and in more leadership organizations.

After graduating college, I still knew I was meant to lead leaders however I doubted that anyone wanted to listen to a 22 year old, and I was right. Therefore, I knew I wanted to get into a company that would support career progression to get there. I also wanted a company that had the structure to support me in learning how to lead in a corporate setting. I chose a low-level job at a very large national company as an entry point. I found ways to continue to lead even in that entry level job. I lead our employee engagement group, sat on employee committees, and acted as a subject matter expert for various projects training other employees. I knew I couldn’t formally lead people in the role I was in but I could sure practice my influence skills and assert myself as a leader within the team. I realized that I was performing my life’s work in small doses every day. The challenge was, I wanted to have a greater reach with more impact, I wanted to not only lead and influence but be responsible and accountable for the results. Also, I wanted to get some of the credit for the results I was already getting. So after getting the news that I was not getting yet another promotion, I looked to see if I could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. I found a role that was just that! I still wasn’t qualified to formally lead people but I had a manager take a chance on me to lead a variety of projects and initiatives that would eventually prove I was capable of achieving results through others. There became another position open to lead in this new organization and I was in. I was in the unique position where I had some individual staff reporting to me and some supervisors with their own teams. I was still responsible for projects and results that required not only leadership within my team but also influence across the leadership group. All of these people were in positions of leadership as I see it. More than a decade after realizing what my passion was in a role that fit the definition of my ‘dream job.’ Because I knew what I wanted and could tailor my experiences to what lit the fire in me, I was working in my vocation that entire decade before.

So that is the most critical part as I see it, finding out what your passion is. The next step is integration of it in as much as possible as often as possible. I was intentional about integrating what I wanted to where I was at that moment. It didn’t matter that no one was going to hire me to formally lead (and before you start assuming this was a confidence issue and I could have sped this timeline up, it wasn’t, I tried, resume and interview agreed I was not ready yet) because I could use that skill anywhere. Then it worked two fold, it gave me the fire I needed to drive forward on days when I really didn’t like the job I was in and it created opportunities for me to try, fail, learn, try and succeed so that I was more prepared when the next opportunity came along.

So what is your passion? What are you good at and what lights you up? How can you get more of that today? Now go do it. Do the things that ignite your passion as often as you can, you, your employer, and everyone interacting with you will be better for it.

Next step, take note of what you’re doing. The ultimate goal is to find work that allows you to work in your passion every single day for more than half of the day. (Just stop and imagine that for a second) How can you capitalize on the experiences you’re having now so that you’ll be more prepared for the next step closer to that dream job in the future?

One final note, if this is feeling like an add, you need retool your framework. Aligning your personal passion in your work should be helping you to clarify and prioritize your work. This should be an enhancement to what you’re already doing, not an additional thing to do. Working with your passion in mind will help you work more efficiently and identify more moments during the day that are rewarding and propelling you toward where you want to be.