Summer is just around the corner, the kids will be out of school soon and it is time to take a breather before the frenzy of harvest. Why not select happiness as your destination this summer?
Every year it seems that we get spring fever or the summer itch – a restlessness and eagerness to start revving our engines. We are just like the plant life that has stirred back to life after the dormancy of winter.
Most of us plan our holiday – where to go, how to get there, what to do when we get there, how much and how long – but we can also plan for a successful career. It is amazing how few people sit down and chart their future.
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Barbara Sher, author of Live the Life you Love and other career management books, believes the restlessness that we feel is confirmation that we know we are not on the right track. Deep down we know there is something that can stir excitement and life into every working day. We know what we want; we just need to discover it.
“Everyone has unique gifts and talents. What you love is what you’re gifted at. To be completely happy, to live a completely fulfilled life, you have to do what you love.”
– Barbara Sher
Sher believes this is not about a career based on skills, aptitude and competencies. This is about that key word – love. This is about doing what you love and doing the things you want to do, using those talents. Have you noticed that you are good at the things you love to do? There may even be talents and gifts that you have not yet discovered.
What makes people happy: wealth, success, health?
A report from Sweden said working to achieve a goal, rather than attaining it, makes people more satisfied and happy. Another study reported that happy individuals are driven to seek and undertake new goals.
An Ipsos Reid-Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling survey in 2007 found two-thirds of Canadians agreed strongly that “the more satisfied you are with your career, the more likely you are to be happier in life.”
As well, 93 percent indicated that “the more satisfied you are with your career, the more likely you are to have greater overall health.”
How can we find that special gift or direction in our lives? Personality tests and other assessments will provide some clues. I prefer an exercise in which you write stories about incidents in your life that have brought you great happiness. By interpreting these stories you can discover your interests, values and skills.
Take another look at the goals you have set. Will they create happiness and use your gifts and talents? Are the goals clear enough and state exactly what we want in great detail and contain the steps of how we will get there? Are your goals to attain what you absolutely love?
According to these surveys, knowing exactly what you want and taking the steps to attain it makes life feel good and generates happiness.
Finding this passion will give you the fuel to achieve and accomplish your goal and result in happiness. Plan your career like a holiday with your happiness as the destination.
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
– Albert Schweitzer
Therri Papp is a career development educator offering on-line personal development programs and career consulting to individuals and business groups. For further information call 306-249-4937 or visit
