Doing what you love is an important part of one’s recovery. A successful career choice allows one to express passions and earn income. Working for one company for decades and then retiring with a pension, as past generations did, is history. Corporate loyalty is gone, replaced by a freelance marketplace in which everyone is always hustling for the next project or the next client. Today, when creating a career in any field, you want to find as many ways as you can to generate income.
It could be considered ‘taking care of yourself’ by connecting with your passion in life and finding a way to monetize it, in order to be of service to yourself and others. You will want to shift your orientation to using your gifts as a contribution, so your self-marketing efforts are always about what others need. It’s likely that you will have many careers during your lifetime. members of the millennial generation can expect to have six or seven, so focus on getting to work, expressing your gifts, learning, and making friends. And be open to having a different vocation in a few years. Reinvention is the new normal. Always remember that everything you’ve done in the past will help make you better at what you’ll do next.
Set forth your goals and plan of action out of your head and into digital or written form. Start at the end—what’s your goal for doing what you love? Be as specific as possible, and use as few words as you can. Then note all the steps you need to take to get you where you want to go. Include a list of deliverables and a timeline. As you log your daily progress, pay attention to what resources you utilized, including networking and collaboration, and what obstacles you had to overcome in doing so.
You’ll begin to notice your behavior patterns, the things you do, or don’t do, that keep getting in the way of turning your dreams of doing what you love into tangible results. This might include things like over committing, procrastinating, feeling overwhelmed and then giving up. You probably can’t get rid of your bad habits, so learn to manage them. If you begin to recognize them when they appear, you can start to reduce their impact. If you tend to procrastinate when you have a project, instead of worrying about it and not doing anything for two weeks, maybe you can train yourself to only spend a couple of hours being worried and then get to work.
You were given unique talents. They are not to be wasted, they are to be nurtured and used to help others. Using critical thinking and journaling your progress will encourage you to avoid the frustration by replacing it with tangible results. These results include an ongoing sense of accomplishment, increased self-esteem and lifelong healthy habits. Finding work that is fulfilling and satisfying supports a positive identity in your recovery and confidence in the person you’ve become.