Finding Inspiration - The Resources You Need To Succeed

In exploring what I want to do next in my career life, I took a course called Career Builder Plus at Douglas College. It was a ten day program, and it focused on finding out what it was exactly that inspired each of us, motivated us, and gave our lives meaning. If we could discover this very crucial information, we could find direction to pursue the career of our dreams. We were tired of jobs we didn't like, didn't love, or simply didn't care about.

In the duration of that program, I was introduced to the inspirational speaker, Les Brown. I found that he really did have the power to motivate me and give me some hope for finding the right job for me. I vowed to watch more inspirational talks when I felt down and out, simply as pick-me-uppers when things got stale.However, I soon lost sight of this until today when my friend sent me a link to a marvelous site called TED.com. TED is a nonprofit organization committed to spreading the best ideas in the world for free. There are videos galore and you can learn so much, that's it's really quite unbelievable. In particular today, I watched a talk by Seth Godin on standing out, and a talk by Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation. If you're remotely interested in business (you run an Etsy shop, manage people, etc), you should check these out. Seth Godin talks about how marketing has changed. It has gone from bombarding people with information until they buy your product to standing out so that they will pay attention to you and spread the word on your behalf. Dan Pink talks about how some companies suffocate innovation and creativity by using extrinsic motivation instead of intrinsic motivation.
Seth Godin also has another talk on "the tribes we lead". Something that stood out for me in that talk was his observation that people want to be missed. They want to know that they will be missed when they are gone, and that our jobs as tribe leaders (companies, managers, etc) is to make sure that our customers and employees feel missed when they are gone. In other words, people want to feel like they belong and that they have value. If you can make your customers and contacts feel like they are missed and valued, then you will touch a chord with them and be able to reach them.

In finding inspiration to succeed, it has been important for me to look first inward to learn more about myself, and then to look outwards to find inspiration in the world around me. It appears that there are websites out there like TED.com that want to help you to succeed. Did you know that there are even more? In your local community, for example, is a library where you can read the latest books and magazines for free! There is a wealth of information there. And if you lose your job, you can go to the employment centers and find a case manager that can help you find free resources to job search, career search, and possibly get funding for education. In fact, some courses funded by the government will actually pay you a wage while you take the courses for free. Entrepreneurial courses, for example, apply to this.
You are not alone. There are people that want to help you, and to listen to you. They care about you even though they don't know who you are. They care because they're human too, and they go through the same things as you do. Problems, issues, lay offs, divorces, insecurities, stress, anxiety, loss - they go through them too!

So don't be down on yourself. Yes, the economy is bad and things are hard, but you have the ability to learn, to improve, and to change your situation. And, if you need a motivational kick, here it is:

Making a Career from doing what you Love

I started reading "Success Built to Last , Creating a Life that Matters" by Jerry Porras et al lately and realized that Mytutorlist.com users could benefit from some of the ideas in this book. On interviewing and analyzing many individuals who have experienced self-defined, world-changing success, Porras et al found some common themes. They discovered that how successful you feel at the end of your journey doesn't depend on how rich or powerful you are, it depends on whether you did something that you found meaningful in life. Porras et al encourages the reader to identify what is truly meaningful to the reader, and then to follow their passions with thinking and actions to support that meaning.

I was really encouraged by this. Every day, advertisements and media try to tell us different definitions of what will make us happy. This happens so much that we lose track of what we really care about, what we are really passionate about. Porras et al argue that when you find what you really care about, you will know because you will become obsessed about. And because you're obsessed about it, you lose track of time and you will work harder than anyone else to follow that passion. Perhaps you're in school, and you don't know what to do for your career. The key is find out what you really love and to make that into your career - not because it will make you rich or famous, but because following passions give you drive and committment that you won't find by following a career that you don't love or care about.

I hope that every student out there will realize the vast potential that they have when they find meaning in their life and can take actions to create more meaning. We are all capable of doing more when we do something that we are passionate about.