Whatever path you choose for your life…or whatever path chooses you…it is never your career that defines you.
It’s also not your “vocation” that defines you…although that gets a little closer to the root of who you are, who you want to be, and what you want to share with the world.
But that doesn’t tell the entire story either.
Some definitions first:
Career: an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress (my underline).
Vocation: a strong feeling of suitability (my underline) for a particular career or occupation.
Regarding your career, progress is defined more by objective metrics such as money, title, status.
Regarding your vocation, suitability is a more subjective metric…but it’s not complete.
There’s a third category that shows up when you ask yourself the question:
“What am I doing with my life?”
For me…and I hope for you too…your career and/or vocation includes your dreams, aspirations…and most importantly, passion.
Maybe not every dream, aspiration and passion…but many of them.
And this applies whether you “fell into” your career or vocation…or the road you took was preplanned.
I urge you to think back to your childhood…as far back as elementary school…when you were dreaming about being anything you wanted to be…or when you graduated high school when those dreams may have gotten “revised” a bit…or even post-college (if you attended college) or young adulthood when they undoubtedly got revised further.
However, I maintain that whatever your core passions were early in life—which may or may not have an obvious relationship to your career or your vocation today—are still alive and well.
And there is no reason to ever abandon them.
Even when you go to Despair.com and think about your “potential”:
You may never become an astronaut…but you have the potential to choose your destiny. 🙂
On a recent podcast the host asked me an intriguing “final question” (after an hour of lively banter) that went like this:
“If you could start again and had to take a different route in life, what would you be? And this is not a question about regrets. Rather, it’s about what other passion areas of yours that if you had a second life to live, what would you do differently to make those passions real?”
Like I often do when I’m on podcasts, I told him I wanted to answer a different question, one not about “starting over” or talking about regrets or missing out…but rather incorporating those “other passion areas” in the life I’ve chosen already.
And that it’s not about “what I would be” but “who I am already” (within the construct of the choices I’ve made).
That seemed more constructive…and enlightening…and my conclusion was that all of the things I thought about becoming upon graduating from college I had become…without making any of them my career or vocation.
More on that in a minute.
But here’s a rephrasing of the same question in four parts (with the first three borrowed from a site I found while Googling on this subject):
1) What are the passions and talents you have noticed in your life ever since you were a child (or young adult)?
2) Even if you do not actually pursue them now (directly), take a few minutes to reflect back why you enjoyed these activities so much?
3) What do they really mean to you?
And my bonus question:
4) Look at your career, your vocation and your life today in terms of those passions…have you really abandoned those passions and talents or are they part of who you are every day no matter what you “do for a living?”
How do they show up in your life every day?
How can you continuously make them show up in your life every day?
#4 is a question I asked recently during breakout rooms on our weekly Titans Xclerator call, which ignited epiphanies galore among the members…so I wanted to share the same exercise with you today.
[NOTE: In the P.S. there is an offer to attend the Titans Xcelerator live call on August 29th at no charge… so you too can experience the magic yourself…and have your own “aha moments.” 🙂 ]
Everyone on the call agreed that question #4 above bypasses the question of “what you want to be when you grow up”…and makes the question, “who do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s always within your power to create this distinction.
Let me give the examples from my life when I did this exercise…which hopefully will enable you to do this exercise yourself…which I highly recommend.
And I invite you to share what you learn by asking yourself some version of question #4 above…and I can share some of your answers in a future post.
You can email me.
Having a dream job or career that never materializes in its purest form can still be pursued in many other ways.
There is never any reason to abandon the dream.
I’m sure you have received advice throughout your life that you should never compromise and only pursue that one thing you were destined to do.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work out since we still need to eat and find shelter…the devil is in the details of life…so often we need to follow the more conservative advice about playing it safe and forget about those pipe dreams.
For most of us, being a little more pragmatic takes precedence…but that doesn’t include abandoning your most passionate passions.
You need to go deeper.
Or maybe you have already.
I invite you to share your journey with me…and here’s mine:
I recall that when I was a senior in college I had three career paths that were speaking to me (i.e. “what I wanted to be when I grew up”):
1) Becoming a professional baseball umpire (I even applied and was accepted to THE school for Major League Umpires).
2) Becoming an English professor (which went as far as receiving an offer to enter a PhD program at Idaho State University).
3) Becoming a movie critic (which included acceptance to New York University’s Graduate School of Film Criticism).
There were other professions on the list…not on my list but on the list of “preferred jobs” from my parents…CPA, Lawyer and the like…you know, “real jobs.” 🙂
Clearly I pursued none of the above as a lifelong career…I guess that’s obvious since I write to you every week with marketing propaganda that has little to do with baseball, literature, or film.
Or does my career have everything to do with the roads not taken?
The fact is that I’m pursuing all of those passions (not including accounting or law of course) in one way or another in my life today.
1) I am not a Major League Umpire but I umpire baseball at a high level in my spare time (varsity high school and tournament little league)…and I’ve written to you on a number of occasions how umpiring made me a better marketer, specifically on the topic of customer service and fulfillment…both marketing functions.
Read this if you don’t believe me.
2) I don’t teach English…as a first language or a second language or through literature…but my life is all about teaching.
Read this so I can prove that to you as well.
And since my passion is also writing, my life has that incorporated into it as well.
Not as a world class copywriter or author…but like this.
Additionally, on the topic of “learning English (as a first language), while I may have stopped reading Dickens and Melville, I now read lots of non-fiction instead; and as you know, since I assume you are reading this right now, I write and share this marketing blog with you every Sunday whether you read it (or open it) or not.
Maybe you would have preferred that I majored in accounting rather than English? 🙂
As an aside, my justification to my parents regarding why majoring in English was a good idea at the time:
“I will learn how to read and write.”
Mission accomplished (I think).
Although until the day my mom passed away at 97 years old, she regularly asked me:
“So, when are you going to get an M.B.A.?”
3) I am not writing movie reviews for a living…but like so many of you, I go to the movies regularly…and although I am not asked to post reviews anywhere significant (sigh), I am very confident that I am the best film critic in my own mind.
The movie posters of Pulp Fiction, It’s a Wonderful Life and Midnight Cowboy that hang on the wall behind me whenever I do any video blog or Zoom call are no accident.
They not only enable me to exhibit one of my passions visually for all to see…but those films (in addition to hundreds of others) have made me a better thinker and writer since I study screenplays as part of my current “job.”
I also look for lessons from the big screen when the lights go down (and after chomping on a bag of popcorn) that I can apply to my lifelong passions of direct marketing, copywriting and entrepreneurship, similar to how I apply umpiring and teaching.
I also did a video blog with the email master Ben Settle on “marketing lessons from Frank Capra” (who directed “It’s a Wonderful Life” and many other classic films).
All of this reminded me of a candidate years ago who I interviewed for a job to run a trade books division for my company and he told me his “main qualification” for the position was:
“I read a lot of books”
Therefore, I am a legitimate movie critic because “I watch a lot of movies.” 🙂
I bet you can find many places in your life where your passions show up…and it doesn’t matter if you get paid for them or not.
They are priceless and eternal.
And I didn’t share all of my “broken dreams” with you to feel sorry for me.
On the contrary, I wanted to emphasize that no matter what vocation you have chosen (or will choose), I encourage you to figure out ways to incorporate all of your passions into your daily life whenever and wherever possible.
Looking back I know that it would be a lot easier if, over a meal, when someone asks me what I do for a living, I could simply say I am an accountant or a lawyer.
It’s just so easy to say it and have them get it.
Difficulties arise when I even hint that I am some kind of “consultant” in direct marketing—I can see the wheels turning in their minds, saying to themselves, “oh…I get it…he’s unemployed.”
But before they start feeling sorry for me that my profession is impossible to explain… and obviously can’t be lucrative (e.g. “I run masterminds”), changing the subject to my passions of umpiring, reading and writing, and studying film seems to always end the pity party.
Everyone will accept your passions…they have to…because they are yours forever.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. Pursuing your passions includes being surrounded by people all the time who are pursuing their passions.
And while that is not a prerequisite to join my Titans Xcelerator Mastermind, the group has become an assembly of the most passionate entrepreneurs, marketers and copywriters who understand the difference between their career and their vocation…and how to incorporate passion into both.
Rather than simply tell you about it, I would like you to experience it firsthand (at no charge) this Thursday, August 29th, at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time.
No obligation to join.
Rather, this is an invitation to passion. 🙂
And no replay will be available.
As far as the details on this free call, I can guarantee that it will be “the best Titans Xcelerator call ever…based on what I wrote in “Making every event in your life the best ever.”
Here is what we have planned for this Thursday:
I’ve always believed in the power of a great story, whether it’s in direct mail, email, or face-to-face.
A compelling story can move mountains…not to mention people.
It’s how we connect, how we influence, and how we ultimately drive results in our businesses.
I’ve managed to bring in TWO brilliant guests (i.e. storytellers) for our next Titans Xcelerator call:
The awesome Ally Fallon.
The magnificent Marcella Allison.
As I already mentioned, you can register to join this call for free…as my gift to you…to sneak a peek inside the best mastermind on the planet.
But here are some additional convincers:
If you don’t know Ally yet, she’s someone you want to know…and learn from.
Ally is an author, speaker, and one of the best coaches for authors in the world.
If you have ever considered writing your book…or even if you haven’t…her presentation will give you tons to think about.
She’s spent over a decade helping people find their voice, tell their stories, and make a real impact on the lives of their customers.
She’s ghostwritten books, coached authors, and built a community dedicated to helping people just like you get their ideas out of their heads, on to paper (or their hard drives) … and out to the world.
But wait, there’s more…
Also speaking on this call is Marcella Allison, A-List Copywriter and a longtime member of Titans Xcelerator, reprising a presentation she gave at Kevin Rogers’ epic event, Copy Chief Live.
We call this a “Titan Spotlight,” when members strut their stuff for the group…something any member can do.
In this presentation, she talks about grit…and also when it’s time to quit…based on her own success story…filled with pitfalls and sadness along the way.
Marcella is amazing.
She got a standing ovation.
Along with some tears shed by the attendees as well.
I bet you will stand and cry at your computer as you watch her on Zoom.
The best part of this call?
I am inviting you to join it for free.
But here’s the deal:
This isn’t just a quick webinar or a snippet of what we do at Titans Xcelerator.
It’s a full two-hour experience.
Just exquisite and actionable content from real people.
Content that includes discussions…maybe a hot seat and/or breakout rooms…plus the two marvelous speakers.
And to repeat, there will be no replay available.
You must be there to experience it.
If you are interested in coming on the call this Thursday (8/29) at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, please commit to attending the entire two hours.
You won’t regret it.
This is a rare opportunity to learn from two experts on what it takes to succeed in business…and life.
I don’t want you to miss out on this special, one-time opportunity.
But again, this invitation is only for those who can fully commit to the entire two-hour call.
If you’re in, click here to reserve your spot and join us live.
Looking forward to seeing you there—let’s learn how to tell stories that change the game—and turn everything in your life into passion.
When you click on this link, you will then see a blue button that says “Follow Calendar” … which you can click on to get the call added to your calendar.
We’ll even remind you before Thursday. 🙂