Hate your job? Follow your interests

You want to know what you are interests are? Take a moment to look back over your life and ask yourself some questions. Start with what you’ve done.

• Have you ever held a job?
• Was it just for the money, or did it spark something in you?
• Was there any part of the job that really intrigued you?
• Was there any part of the job that you can honestly say you loved?

Think a minute and then write it down.

Okay, now let’s move on to your hobbies.

• Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
• Have you ever joined a club or group (other than to pad your résumé) and found yourself actually looking forward to going every week?
• What was it?

Okay, now on to reading.

• What were the last two books that you read?
• When you walk past a newsstand, which two magazines do you always buy?
• When you read these magazines, do you find yourself drawn to certain kinds of articles or certain subjects? Which ones?
• When you are surfing the Web, which sites are you drawn to?
• Which articles do you tend to read online?

Finally, look at the people in your life. Take a moment to think about your friends and close colleagues.

• What kinds of people do you find yourself drawn to?
• What words would you instinctively use to describe these people?

Okay, now look at what you’ve written down. Scan your answers and try to pick out a couple of interests, a couple of things you are consistently drawn to. It might not be easy because you’ve probably captured quite a lot, but push yourself to be selective. Choose three things, or subjects, or types of people that you know in your heart are deeply seated interests of yours. And then write them down.

Obviously I don’t know what you’re written, but it’s guaranteed that no one else in the world wrote exactly what you did. Your interests are the first and most obvious sign that you are not the same as everyone else. And so, to live a strong, successful life, your interests are the first thing you must take seriously.

A great many people don’t. They are quick to discount their interests. They make mental trade-offs with themselves, saying things like, “I am really interested in teaching, but I want to make a lot of money first. So I’ll go into banking, work hard for ten years, and then give it all up and go teach.” Or, “I’m interested in art, but I can’t make a living at it. So I’ll go get a real job and then do my art on nights and weekends.”

In almost every instance these trades are bad trades. They force you to do something almost impossible: put your real personality on hold and then try to bring it back to life at some point in the future.

The problem is that while you’re waiting for that future to arrive, you spend hour upon hour, for years at a time, doing things that don’t interest you. And this takes its toll. Even if you manage to perform well in this “non-you” role, it still takes its toll. Your motivation suffers. Your confidence suffers. Your reputation suffers. Interested people attract others, and with your interests disengaged from your work, you become less attractive, less fun to be around, less energetic. You slowly lose your sense of who you are and what you can do. And so when that “future” finally arrives, you aren’t the same person anymore. You’ve lost yourself along the way.

Don’t let this happen to you. Don’t make this trade. Look closely at your interests and take them seriously. Start pushing your life toward them now.

Excerpted from “The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success.” Copyright (c) 2008 by Marcus Buckingham. Reprinted with permission from ThomasNelson.

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