[03/18/24] Mind-Body Monday: What Do You Want To Do With Your One Amazing Life?
This video is for anyone struggling to discover what they can do in their life to feel truly happy, and make a living at, like I do. I never trained to be and do specifically what I created a successful career out of. I didn’t have anyone to look up to or follow. I used the same tools that I am going to briefly teach you today to create a career that has spanned 24 years.
So pause this video now and grab a piece of paper and a pen. If you are watching me live, then make sure to save this video by subscribing to my channel: Thought Pain Therapy by Casandra MacAlan
Ready? Okay. I want you to begin by imagining a Venn Diagram. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it is a tool where you use two overlapping circles to illustrate relationships between things. (show example) When we are ready, in the first circle you will write down things you love doing, and in the second circle, what you have skills or abilities for. Where they overlap - in the center - is going to illuminate a path to a personal and emotionally fulfilling profession.
But, in order to do this you first have to discover the following things:
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What do you love
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What are your skills
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What are your abilities
To start it’s really essential to clear your mind of any thoughts you might have had about what you can make a career out of. For the purpose of this exercise I want you to simply focus on answering the following questions.
First you are going to focus on what you love. Without worrying about the diagram yet just grab a blank piece of paper.
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Start by writing down a list of things in your life that have brought you the most ease in being a part of. The tasks or circumstances that felt like they just flowed. Time flew by. You were sorry you had to stop. That kind of feeling. Begin..
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Next, I want you to write down the things that have made you feel good inside to accomplish. The things that you felt were helpful, giving, supportive, and made you feel valued and appreciated. Begin..
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Lastly, write down things you’ve done in your life that made you feel confident, brilliant, sexy, witty, funny, or you just admire yourself for completing. You know those times where you think to yourself, “I’m amazing”! “Look at me go!” “I kicked ass at that!” Go ahead…
Now, if you combine these things together you will undoubtedly find things you love doing for the sole reason of doing them. Feel free to pause me again and find the commonalities.
Okay, next! You are going to write down a list of your skills and abilities. Now, skills are things you have studied at or trained to be able to accomplish. These are the things you went to school for or were taught as a child or throughout your life.
So right now, pause and make a list of all the things that you have been trained to know how to do. You don’t have to be an expert in any of them. All I want you to do is write down things that you know that the average person doesn’t or may not.
Lastly, you are going to make a list of your abilities. An ability is something that you are just good at. Whether or not you have had any actual training in. Maybe you just find that you are really good with people or machines or math or cooking or whatever, write those down now.
Okay now that you have the information, on the next piece of paper, I want you to draw a Venn Diagram. Remember, two large circles that overlap in the middle. On the left you are going to write down things you found that gave you peace, made you feel supportive and good about yourself.
On the right side you are going to write your skills and abilities.
Now I want you to brainstorm ideas of how they connect and place them in the middle. Don’t worry about what you think you know of the possible careers out there. Just place in the center, things that you can accomplish with ease, joy and confidence. This is your personal vision of success. Doing something that brings you all these wonderful feels. I will tell you what to do with this information - in a few minutes - but first, I want you to just find that special blissful intersection, or center.
So much of our lives were imprinted by our parents, teachers, and society of what a “career” needs to look like and how money equals success.
If you are like me, so many different passions we might have had as children and growing up, were shot down by authority figures for not being good enough or making us or them look good or making enough money.
We let our dreams be stolen from us, because we didn’t know any better and honestly, neither did the ones that told you not to bother. You can bet that they were told the same things by their caregivers and teachers.
When I was growing up schools actually gave “aptitude tests” where they basically told young inspiring minds what they should settle for. Horrible things in my opinion. I saw my friends with brilliant and creative thoughts and ideas, give them up after being told that they should be something that gave them no joy, because they would never be successful at what did.
One of my favorite quotes (and you know I have a lot) is “Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Honestly, so many of us are raised to think that we have to spend the majority of our lives “working for the man” or “the gold watch” or “the title” or “what our parents wanted to be and now want us to be”. The only choices we felt left with were often out and out rebellion. Which could sometimes turn into semi-destructive choices, or falling into line to make other people happy with their decisions by embodying them through our lives?
How many of you are going to school right now studying something you hate because you weren’t given any real choice not to? Or working in a job you just show up for, because you have to pay the bills? We somehow have forgotten that mere existence is not what we are here to do. We didn’t decide in advance to join this game of life to merely follow the rules and get to the end. I believe we joined to thrive! To take brave chances and even make risky (but self-honoring) choices, and even to lose again and again until we win.
Now you may say, I have to earn a living. I have obligations, and I get that. But you can fulfill them and yourself at the same time if you start by believing you can. Some more quotes by successful entrepreneurs: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Or: “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve and that’s the fear of failure.”
The fear of not living a successful life was bred into us as children. What often failed to be taught however, was what actual success means. In my opinion it is living your life in the center of that diagram.
So, now that you have a vision of what you could do to truly be successful in life, set aside some time to put it into practice. Maybe you already have the tools to begin at home. Maybe you know someone who could support you in trying something new. Maybe you’ve already had this dream for years and just needed someone to help provide you with clarity, which my hope is my little video might have helped with.
You don’t have to worry about what this occupation looks like yet. Just put your creativity into imagining it. A profession that is yours. Made for you!
You don’t need to want someone elses job, but it is okay if you do. If you already know what you want, then find the tools to get you there. If you don’t, then this is the perfect opportunity to invent what you and only you can. The world needs more dreams put into action. The world needs what only you can give it. It is time to give fear and doubts a break from ruling your creative mind and give yourself a chance to become what you are here to be. Just like me. I believe in you. Go do the thing!