Everyone is different. But everyone wants to live a fulfilling life, doing something they enjoy while being paid well for that. This can be a tough one, especially when you emigrate from your country to elsewhere and are trying to get paid for something you do not really enjoy doing but that is appreciated by the market (a majority of people in a certain niche you work in).
And, yet, to do something that you enjoy doing is essential to living a fulfilling life. This takes time, courage, and sometimes costs. Keep reading if you are looking for your way.
While studying successful people (not always monetary-wise), I noticed they all enjoyed what they were doing. Getting back to my true self is the journey I’m on since 2018 – when I turned 40. It is not always easy, especially when you have a personality type, like mine, that helped you for many years to satisfy the needs of others more than of yourself. This is not good or bad. It just has its own specifics you need to learn to deal with to better navigate your life.
I always thought my dream was to become a salesman. In my youth, I enjoyed making connections, writing brief stories, selling, and observing sparks in peoples’ eyes when they fulfilled their desires.
And yet, I was a very shy guy born in the Soviet time when everyone had to live an “equal” life. Internet knocked on my door in the 1990s and when I opened it, I was washed with a wave of programming and automation away from my dream in sales. 😊
As I moved countries and dove full-time into web development while making it my career for the next 10+ years, PHP, C#, MySQL, etc. – were the tools I was building with daily the online media websites, online shops, web apps, portals.
But something was missing. I missed making genuine connections and direct interactions with the customers that I enjoyed so much before I got onto this career track. I’ve also noticed coding was not that much fun anymore. 🥱
As I rarely liked the solutions we were producing (I was an idealist back then) I much more enjoyed digging into the true needs of our customers and of my colleagues trying to understand how something worked for them and what and why didn’t, what did they actually want to achieve and what they missed. So I took on the roles of a business analyst, and a product manager and then tried to build my own startup… 😐
It took me another 10+ years to self-reflect on my past and enroll in a coaching training program. I realized that what actually ignites me is making connections, studying biographies and what people enjoy doing and are good at, writing brief engaging copies, bringing structure and harmony to the teamwork, digging into people’s true needs and helping them blazing a trail to the desired goals or simply helping to get a job they’d enjoy.
Now, hold here for a moment. How about you? Take a deep breath and think, perhaps, remember: What makes you tick? What activities give you energy, a sense of self-realization, something that you are good at already now, activities that you could do even for free?
You can count on me when you need to:
- better understand what makes you tick and gives you energy
- do a career change or build your personal and professional development strategy and support you along your transformational journey
- improve your communication and relationship with others
My life purpose is to connect, support, and engage people so that together we grow, and experience what looked challenging or impossible at first. What’s yours?
Contact me if you need a hand! 🤝
PS: Watch The Way (2010) with Martin Sheen for more inspiration.