Building High Flying Career in 21st Century: SPEED UP, GROW & Zoom Ahead Your Career by Asking This Question First
As a salesperson, I have met lots of employees, businessmen and self-employed people. I have asked this powerful question to almost everybody I have met.
Here is the question:
‘Why do you get up every day in the morning and go to work?’
You will not believe if I say most of the people I have asked this question have become speechless. Some even smile at this question. When I press for an answer they start to describe their job. Like, I go to the office every day to do accounts work, to do sales, to do office work and the list goes on. All of them are right in their own way. But let me tell you the fact.
This is not the language of success.
And surely this language will not get you the riches you desire.
The question that might come to your mind is:
If not this, then what do I say?
The answer lies in the fact that you have to look beyond your job. You have to have a bigger purpose in what you are doing.
A purpose that is bigger than you.
Now, how do I find my purpose?
Look at the Mission Statement or Core Purpose of your organization. Almost every organization has it but unfortunately, the people working in that organization don’t know how to use that purpose, including the entrepreneurs who started the business. So the Mission Statement or the Core Purpose just becomes a glorified statement of the organization.
If this is the case, then read and re-read the Mission Statement of your organization and then look out for ways you can live this Mission Statement on a daily basis in the job that you do.
If I talk about my Core Purpose, my Core Purpose is ‘To Make People Happy and Rich’. Every day I get up in the morning and do my job to make at least one person happy and guide him to becoming rich.
I live my purpose by writing this blog that you are reading.
I live my purpose by conducting seminars on the subject of personal and financial growth.
I live my purpose by coaching individuals and drafting a blueprint for their personal and financial success irrespective of what their present state is.
Let me restate my purpose: ‘To Make People Happy and Rich’
You will notice that in my Core Purpose statement I don’t talk about what job I do, or how much money I earn. Because the purpose is not about me, it is beyond me and it can never be achieved.
Remember there is a difference between purpose and goal.
Most of the time people mistake purpose with vision.
They are not the same.
A vision is a big goal to be achieved in about fifteen to twenty years while a purpose is like a guiding star. You cannot reach it. It is there to guide your actions and goals and keep you on the right track.
I live my purpose on a daily basis and in the process of doing so, I earn the respect and goodwill of people around me. Of course, I also earn money.
Look around you and watch closely some of the successful people; read any biography of successful people. They all are driven by a strong purpose that is beyond them. They all have lived or are living a life of purpose and have earned what the ordinary man can only dream of.
Remember: ‘Live a Life of Purpose and the Money Will Follow.’
There might be a case wherein your organization does not have a clear cut purpose. No Problems. You go ahead and make your very own purpose that will inspire and drive you to daily get up in the morning and go to work.
You might ask.
‘But I don’t know how to make my purpose. Is there a process?’
Yes. There is a process and it is not really very difficult to come out with a strong and inspiring purpose.
Here is the process –
When your mind is not cluttered with stuff activities and you are at peace with yourself, just ask yourself this powerful question:
‘Why are you doing this job? What benefits does it bring to your organization?’
Answer this question and then again ask ‘Why’ to your answer. You will get a new answer. Again ask ‘Why’ to your new answer. Do this process five times and you will get a clear picture of your purpose.
Another question that can help you in creating your purpose is:
‘What happens to your clients or what kinds of emotions do they go through with the job you do?’
For example, you may say that your job helps to streamline the business of your client. So your purpose can be ‘I make my clients business simple.’
Remember, your purpose should not be a sentence of heavy words or should not sound like a tongue twister. Take care that it should not run into a paragraph that you will find it difficult to memorize and say as is to anybody whom you describe.
Your Core Purpose should be a simple sentence that runs in your blood and you live it on a daily basis.
Beware!
Don’t write anything fancy.
Remember, your purpose must excite you, it must have that power to inspire you to do your job on a daily basis irrespective of the company you work for.
Now comes the hard work.
Stop reading the blog and pick your diary. Go through the above process and answer the above questions till the time you don’t have your clear cut purpose written in your diary. It might not happen in one sitting. No problems. Take a break. Think about it. Go on a walk. Let your mind loose. Put your mind to work. Do research on the purpose of great leaders or successful organizations and see what they have come out with.
Once you finalize your purpose write in down or have a print out of it.
The Purpose of My Life is:
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Read your purpose two times daily; once when you get up in the morning and the second time before you go to bed. Make it a habit till the time your purpose becomes one with you.
If you start to live a life of purpose, you will start to enjoy every moment of your job. Your job for you will never be a job again, it will become fun.
Fun!
That is the second thing you must be doing in your job – Having lots of fun.
Pick up any person who is earning a huge paycheck and you will find that he or she is having fun in whatever they are doing. They love their job.
Take a pause and close your eyes and think –
‘Am I really having fun in my job? Do I really enjoy my job? Do I love to go to work every day? Am I able to create a healthy, fun-loving ambiance in my office?’
If not then you have some really serious thinking to do because this will become the biggest hurdle in you earning big money year after year.
Remember, this blog is just for that.
Pick up your diary and write on it – What do I really love about my job?
Now, don’t say you don’t love anything in your job. Think. List as many things as you can. Don’t worry even if it is the chair on which you sit in your office. Write it down – What I like about my job is that I get to sit on a really expensive and comfortable chair.
That is great! In fact, it is awesome!
You should see some of the companies that have chairs for their staff. Believe me, you will not want to sit on it, forget working in that company.
Okay. Now go back to complete your list. Write down whatever comes to your mind. Whatever makes you love your job?
Grab that writing pad of yours and write it now. I mean it.
WRITE IT NOW!
Congratulations!
Now you have many things to look forward to in your job.
Go to a fresh page in your writing pad and now write down – What do I hate about my job?
List down as many things as you can. For some of you, this might be a cake walk. Think about the things that you are made to do and how you hate doing it.
Go ahead, do it now!
Okay! So now you have two lists, one that says what you love about your job and the other that says what you hate about your job.
Let’s get creative.
Start thinking of ways that will help you reduce your hatred towards the activity that you do in your job. We will eventually bring it to zero, but to start with let us minimize it. One of the steps to reduce your hatred can be to talk to your immediate boss about the things that you hate doing on your job. If you are able to put it in the right perspective your immediate boss will surely help you to solve your problem.
Against each hate task, write down two or three actions that you will take to get rid of the hatred. Even if you think it is not possible to get rid of some tasks from your job profile that you hate; then also write the actions.
Just do it!
Okay! So you are done!
Now repeat the exercise with what you love about your job. Against each sentence write down two or three actions that you will take, starting tomorrow to enhance your love for that task. By doing this exercise what you are doing is taking your love for a particular task to a higher level and converting it into your passion. Read the three actions you have written. Will you become passionate if you go ahead and start implementing those actions tomorrow?
Great! That’s what is needed!
Now, look at both the lists.
What you have right now in front of you is the Master Blueprint of your Professional Life!
A Blueprint which will take you to riches that you have always dreamt of. It will guide you in earning that dream salary!
Now, what do you do with your Blueprint? Whatever you do don’t keep it in safe custody or in a place where you will never find it.
Instead, this is what you do,
Type the entire blueprint on a computer and take printouts of the same. Make two copies of the entire set. Keep one near your bed and carry the second to your work daily.
As soon as you get up in the morning, pick up the copy near your bed and read it. Think about the actions that you took yesterday and what actions are you going to take today. If you would like to change the actions for a better result, good enough go ahead and change your actions. Remember, successful strategies are those that work in your favor.
At office whenever you get time, read the copy that you carry. See how you are developing in each area.
IN CONCLUSION:
Have fun in what you are doing!
Again, before you go to sleep read it again thinking about the little, little success that you are achieving on a daily basis.
By going through this exercise do you realize what you are doing?
You are building your job – task by task.
Now it is you who is accountable for the job you do.
You start taking ownership of your job.
You are becoming passionate about your job!
You become the author of your professional life!
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