Careers aA A Crossroads-Where Doing Work You Love Is The Only Option

You have heard it before. Do the work you love and the money will follow. Did you believe it?

For people like Paula Dean, whose passion for cooking and culinary artistry runs the Food Network, her love; her work and her contribution to humanity are integrally intertwined. There is no separation between doing work you love and receiving abundance in exchange.

For many others, the idea of doing the work you love lives in a world of fantasy separated by obligation and duty and shaped by beliefs about the way the world works. And that is for those who know what they care about. For some people, the whole notion puts their lives at a crux point of crisis.

How did we get to the point where your personal jou
ey and destiny is so intertwined with contributing our talent to something far greater than ourselves?

Careers are at the crossroads quite simply because we are at a time in our human evolution when there is a compelling need to:
• do meaningful work;
• contribute from your creative source of talent;
• create a future with hope.

The pressure meets your hidden subconscious beliefs about what is or is not possible. Two things then happen: aggression or depression depending on whether you express or repress the need to follow your heart’s desires. This is what is at the heart of stress-related illness. When the internal conflict surfaces as stress-related illness or aggression that surprises you and those around you, the opportunity is there to question, examine and change the subtle yet powerful beliefs that hold you back from taking the risk to do what you really want to do.

Issues like financial security, social security and self-image surface as thoughts like: “If I leave my job I won’t get another one.” “That’s fine for you…you don’t have a family, a mortgage, a purple horse and obligations...”helps rationalize sticking with the status quo. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too!” “Suck it up” is another corporate favorite. It looks safer to choose the certainty of misery rather than the misery of uncertainty. Or so it would seem.

People can not achieve health and self-satisfaction by fulfilling obligations. Health and self-fulfillment can only come through contributing creative talent; talent that remains, for some, hidden from even themselves.

Everyone grows up listening to and often believing what parents, the educational institutions and friends said about whom you are and what your place in the world is. The relationship with the self is now undergoing a massive transformation. It sits at the crossroads of your intellectual, emotional, social and energetic being.

Work is inextricably linked to this transformation quite simply because we have a massive influx of Gen X and Gen Y who are incapable of feeling one thing and forcing themselves to do another. Some Boomers and almost all Traditionalists were raised on "Suck it up." Do what must be done at all costs.
When we recognize that the leadership gaps and so called generational gaps reflect perceptual differences, we open the door to create a wonderful platform for shared learning, and self-discovery. From there, this issue we term employee engagement is a non-issue. It is natural and organic. Wisdom is found in all.

Careers are at a crossroads for many who are aware that their desire to contribute meaningfully, to stretch themselves into new areas of endeavor, is quite consistent with what is possible. The question is: Is anyone listening? Employees, employers, entrepreneurs, self-employed all face the same crossroads with different reasons for making, or not making, the necessary changes. In the end, one way or another, the human spirit will prevail.