There is a bit of a bun fight going on in the career coaching world about what it takes to have a successful career. On one side, experts advise us to follow our passion. “Do what you love,” they say. Experts on the other side say passion is highly overrated and what we really must do is engage and hone our talents.
Who is right? Both and neither. We must be talented at what we do or people will be reluctant to pay us. We must also do what what motivates and excites us or we will find ourselves in dead-end work.
But talents and passions are not enough. To have a truly successful career, we must have some of our significant needs, wants, and, desires (e.g. income, balance, work environment, challenge) met. And our work must, must significantly help other people or organizations.
If we leave out of the equation our needs, etc., we won’t have a career, we will have martyrdom. Likewise, we need to help people and/or organizations solve their problems otherwise there will be no one to pay us; we will have found not a career but a hobby.
Pull all four factors together–our talents, passions, needs/wants/desires, and our sense of the problems we like to help others solve–and we are living from our SweetSpot. Here we find careers full of success, meaning, reward, and joy.
In your corner,
Mike