Richard Bolles wrote about the late Srully Blotnick, Ph.D., when he decided to find out what hppened to people who decided to ‘go for the money.’ Richard wrote, “Srully studied the career choices and financial success of 1500 people, who were divided into 2 groups, Group A (83 percent of the people in the study) chose a career because they believed they could earn a lot of money doing it, Group B (17 percent of the study group) chose a career because of their passion and desire for that work. Who do you think made more money?

Twenty years later, 101 of the 1500 had become millionaires. One hundred of them were from Group B, those who made choices based upon passion. Only one millionaire was from Group A, those who chose their career to make money. Dr. Blotnick concluded that the majority of people who became wealthy did so because they found work that absorbed their attention. Their ‘luck’ happened because of their passion.”

Pretty interesting, isn’t it? What do you really enjoy doing? Are your core passions the main part of your career? To find out more about your core strengths, take some time to ponder on work you enjoy doing so much it seems like play. Ask close family members and family what they think you are really good at. Take some online skills and personality assessments. Do some online research on strengths and transferable skills. If you would like to have a complimentary initial consultation or a Strengths Profile, please contact me.

Mark McClure was asked by friends and colleagues, “Why are you doing what you do?” He wrote in his blog, “I remember that some of their generally well-meaning questions made me somewhat ashamed that I even needed to focus on personal development. It was real easy to start looking for what might be really “wrong” with me to have created the PD need in the first place.”

Mark said that he started to make “it a daily habit of asking myself this question before the start of almost every major task: “What is the point of doing this?” This felt weird but I soon got used to it. What remained tricky was to remember to pose the same question when the task was completed!”

Robin Ryan wrote in her blog to “Build a career on your strengths. You have natural talents that you were born with. These talents are the things you find easy to do. Maybe it’s teaching or writing. Maybe it’s designing, selling, or helping people. You have numerous strengths so list all your talents, including things that others compliment you on. If you begin to use your mastered strengths on the job daily, you’ll move up faster, find better jobs, and be paid a higher salary as a result, so make using your innate talents the basis for any position you choose to go after.”

So, what do you think about looking at each task before and after completion and asking two simple questions, “Why am I doing this task?” and “Does this task require my strengths?” I am challenged to take a day and ask these two questions before and after all of my tasks. We have a short life to live. I am pursuing living life to the fullest, and I want to use my strengths in what I do. What about you? Do you know your strengths and are you using them throughout the day?

If you want to know more about a two-session “Strengths Identification” package I offer, please contact me for a complimentary initial consultation. These sessions can be positively life-changing!

Peter Weddle has written a new book “Career Fitness” and in chapter 3, I really appreciate what was written. Peter states, “To be your personal best is to draw on the special talent and wisdom with which you were born. It is to give expression to the self-defined and self-created excellence that resides within you and each and all of us. It is to enjoy your NATURAL your unique occupational mastery-the workplace activity at which you excel and in which you feel the most challenged, purposeful, happy and complete. This mastery is your calling, and it is the only work that isn’t onerous, dissatisfying and, ultimately, harmful to the health of your career.

Many of us never get to work at our NATURAL. In fact, we don’t even know what it is. That’s why there has been so much focus, in recent years, on helping us to achieve “work-life balance.” The term implies that work is a negative activity that has no intrinsic value other than a paycheck which is almost always less than what we want or need. Our jobs cannot lift us up, but can only drag us down, so we must find a way to counteract them. We must balance our experience in the workplace with activities that occur someplace else and do have enduring value. And, sadly, survey after survey confirms that balance is exactly what a growing number of Americans are struggling to achieve in their lives.”

What is your ’special talent and wisdom with which you were born’? What activities do you enjoy and feel most challenged, purposeful, happy and complete?

I’d enjoy sitting down with you and discussing with you your key strengths, ’special talent and wisdom’! I have a two-session package called “Strengths Identification.”

What are your core strengths? What do you really enjoy doing that seems more like play than work?

By discovering your key strengths and using them as much as you can in your career and volunteer activities, your work will give you significant energy rather than deplete energy.

Robin Ryan wrote in her blog to “Build a career on your strengths. You have natural talents that you were born with. These talents are the things you find easy to do. Maybe it’s teaching or writing. Maybe it’s designing, selling, or helping people. You have numerous strengths.

So, list all your talents, including things that others compliment you on. If you begin to use your mastered strengths on the job daily, you’ll move up faster, find better jobs, and be paid a higher salary as a result, so make using your innate talents the basis for any position you choose to go after.”

I agree with Robin that knowing our core strengths and using them is a key to enjoying our life more. I think it is so important that I offer a two-session package focusing on a person’s strengths. See “Strengths Profile” on my website or  go to http://summitviewcareercoaching.com/strengths-identification.html . This package is designed to give a person more confidence, direction, value for the employer to use during an interview preparation and on a resume.

To find more information about what Robin wrote, see http://hr.blr.com/whitepapers.aspx?id=76072