How to Determine Your Life’s Work

Our experiences are what move us into our life’s work. The choice is whether to respond to whatever life throws at us in a proactive way and keep moving forward, or stay stuck and flounder about.

There are people fulfilling their life’s work each and every day. Some are visible in the marketplace and others have a more low-key presence. Whether you what to become highly visible or create a small jewel of a business, there are strategies in this book for you. But it also takes a commitment to implementing them on a consistent basis to have the greatest impact.

The right focus, thoughts, beliefs, choices, and actions are essential to success. It’s easy to find excuses and reasons why things can’t be done, why they are not working, and why success eludes us. However, no matter how difficult your present circumstances, if you keep your focus on your vision you will have the energy to keep moving forward. Had I not kept my focus on what my mother needed instead of what I needed, I would definitely have given up.

Our life’s work often resides within an obvious passion.

Take the case of top-ranked NFL tight end and 49ers star Vernon Davis, who also owns Gallery 85, an exclusive art gallery in Santana Row in San Jose, California. Gallery 85 offers a wide range of visual artists a venue for high-end exposure for their work while raising funds for the Vernon Davis Foundation for the Arts, which promotes arts education and art appreciation for at-risk youth and awards college art school scholarships for talented inner-city youth.

Some would say Vernon’s life’s work is to be a great tight end, while others would say it is running his nonprofit organization. Another perspective is that both are part of his life’s work.

Then there’s Tia Torres, an iconic figure who rescues pit bulls. What started as a part time interest in rescuing dogs has become Tia’s life’s work. Having worked as a gang counselor at one point in her career, her passion for rescuing animals turned into what is now known to millions as the TV show Pit Bulls and Parolees.

In the late 1990s, during a visit to a local animal shelter, Tia met a four-year-old pit bull who made a huge impression on her. She touched Tia’s heart and was instrumental in Tia’s pursuing her new calling. The journey to save pit bulls was a rough one with many obstacles along the way. But with her big “why” always in the forefront of her journey, Tia overcame incredible obstacles to become known as one of the most powerful dog rescuers of all time.

Because of Tia’s work, thousands of pit bulls destined to be throw-away dogs now live in loving homes. Her work not only saved these amazing creatures, but she has transformed the misunderstanding people had about pit bulls into love.

Have you found your life’s work? Chances are it resides within your dreams. Now is the time to move towards manifestation of that which you are here to do.