Jan 28, 2014 - Falling Into What You Love

When I was little I wanted to be a doctor or a scientist.  That's not what I do today.

I am a person who is always engaged, always asking questions and wanting to understand and improve my organization.  Boy Scouts, a singing group, my family, my coworkers, and my company as a whole.  As a result, I've been blessed with many opportunities to contribute: a job (first), a promotion, education, another job, and the place I find myself now.  Which is a job, of course, but I'm able to make connections with people in my company that get things done.  And they, in turn, are able to help me as I try to help them.

The message is hard to articulate in vague terms.  Let me try a different tack.  There is a project that I think my company really needs to devote some energy to.  I don't think it's incredibly expensive.  It will take a certain non-trivial amount of time and attention from some key players in the company, but it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.  My previous company needed the same thing, but I did not have the power to start the project myself.  And I did not have the proper partner to start the project there.

Here I have a partner.  I still have no power, no budget, no positional influence.  Just a passion for this thing, and the possibility that I may be part of making it happen.  It's something I care a lot about, and it will positively affect my company.  The more I talk about it with people who can make it happen, the closer to reality it feels.  And if it does, I'm fairly confident I'll be a part of it.

This is what I mean by falling into what you love.  I do what I do now because I love it.  I started out doing something I didn't love, then (as a complete blessing from heaven) was given a chance to do something I did love.  From then on, it's been a continuous round of doing what I love and talking to other people about it.  And what I find consistently is that if you love something, and you talk about it enough, someone who also cares about it and can help you achieve it will give you access to it.  Maybe not a promotion.  Maybe it's just a few hours of her time.  Maybe it's his endorsement on your budget proposal.  But eventually the opportunity will come.  And you will fall right into it.

And because you love it, you will excel at it.