Filed by GoalEnforcer at 6:37 pm on Saturday, May 10, 2008
Many years ago Mad Magazine defined a "born winner"
as guy who marries for love, and then finds out that his wife is
heir to a billion dollar fortune. In terms of a job, I would rewrite it
as a born winner is someone who takes a job for love, and ends up
getting rich. Unlikely? Impossible? Not really. In fact, exactly the
opposite is true. According to a study done by Srully Blotnick between
1960 and 1980, you are 488 times more likely to become a millionaire
within 20 years if you pursue what you love, than you are if you just
go for the gold from the start. (See this link for
more details about the study). So take the surer path: start now by
finding a job you love.
To be successful at this quest, however, will take
some planning, and that in turn means setting and attaining goals. The
best way to do this is actually backward, that is starting with where
you want to end up, and working your way back to where you are now.
It's all a matter of prerequisites. And it all begins with your dream.
Many of us have been told almost from birth that we
will have to settle for less than we really want, because it isn't
"practical" to expect more. Yet if that were some kind of cosmic law,
then no one would ever be really happy with their occupation. But many
people are. In recent surveys, it is consistently found that about 85%
of Americans are unhappy with their jobs. But that also means that 15%
are happy! Are they just lucky, or did they do something different? The
real question is, what can you do differently that will improve your
chances of being in that enviable minority?
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to
ensure your success in finding and getting your dream job is to develop
a solid, well-thought-out strategy, and that means setting and
attaining appropriate goals. Let's look at one example of working
backward.
Let's say you love travel. You love going to new
places, meeting the people, learning about their cultures, and living
high on the hog in fine hotels. Great! One way to have it all is to be
a highly-paid travel writer. But it's unlikely anyone would hire you
off the street for a job like that unless you are well prepared to do
it well. So your first step is to get yourself prepared.
In order to be taken seriously as a travel writer,
you will need at least two things: a solid base of experience traveling
extensively, and the ability to write well about those experiences. So
these are your first two sub-goals. To become a good writer you will
need to study writing and get some of your writing published. As to the
travel part, spend your vacations and off hours doing what you
love--traveling. Then write about it.
Getting any job in any travel-related industry is
another step in the right direction. A job that includes travel, or
allows you to travel on your own time less expensively would be ideal.
That doesn't necessarily mean working for an airline or travel agency.
Even working as a long-haul truck driver would allow you to travel and
to write about it.
So your most immediate employment goal should be to
get your foot in the door in some job that will help you travel more,
and write more about it. If that job is less than ideal, start looking
right away for another one that would move you closer to your goals.
The more ambitious your ultimate goal, the more you
will have to learn to be patient and persistent. But having goals and
sub-goals and sub-sub-goals already set before you makes that easier.
This is especially true as you begin to achieve those lower-level goals
and move on to the next tier. Having a solid plan will also speed up
the process, because you won't waste time on dead ends that don't
really do much to move you toward your ultimate goal.
Having a way to organize your goals is important.
Without that, you are likely to get off track. Part of that process
also involves updating your goals as you progress, and tracking your
movement along your path. If you need to accomplish five major things
to get where you want to be, it is a lot easier when you can look back
and see that you have already succeeded at the first two or three,
because you know that when you have finished your goal list, you'll be
right where you set out to be. Few of us are able to keep track of
these things in our heads. We need to record them, organize, and review
them frequently. It's part of keeping your eyes on the prize.
Read books on your chosen field, and on how
successful people became successful. Leave no stone unturned. This is,
after all, your life we're talking about. And don't forget that you
will do better and be happier doing something you love than in any
other way. It also means that you will be a better person to be around,
which has benefits of its own.
In the end, when you are living your dream, and you
look back with pride (and maybe some amazement) at how you got there,
you will know that you can do anything you are willing to love enough.
