The first step in finding and creating work you love is to uncover your passions. Take out a notepad, and spend at least 30 minutes brainstorming a list of things you love to do.

Don’t worry right now about how each one might work, and definitely don’t censor your picks! We will be talking about viability and the “how to’s” on Day 3. Just do a brain dump of your passions.

Remember, your passions don’t have to be specific activities like photography or hiking, although those are some good ones! You can also write down things like helping people do or learn X, making people feel good, staying at funky BnBs, or drinking good wines. Really, anything that comes to mind is fair game.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

• What hobbies do you have?
• What kinds of things do you do for free just because you love it?
• What do friends and family ask for your help or opinion with?

​Okay, by this point you should have a healthy list of 10-30 passions. Your next step is to narrow down this list to the top 3-5 passions that you feel most strongly about.

Which ones get you jumping out of bed in the morning? Which passions could you talk about for hours without tiring? Feelings of excitement, nervousness, and a touch of fear are a good sign that that particular passion is a great candidate for your list.

Once you’ve created your “short list” of possible career options, take a closer look. Are you seeing a recurring theme?

For example, are three out of your five passions related to health or business or beauty? Make a note of any similarities you see on your short list.

Maybe you don’t see any similarities between your passions. That’s completely okay too! In fact, some of the best ideas come from combining your passions into something completely unique. 

​Millions of people in the world right now look forward to working every day. They feel inspired, ready to start fresh in the morning (or at night, for the night owls!), and often wake up in middle of the night with exciting new ideas that they can’t wait to implement.

I truly believe that anyone can create their dream work, but it takes one really big and sometimes difficult character trait: courage.

Going against the grain can definitely be scary, especially if you have a family to take care of. And sometimes, your family and friends won’t be as supportive as they should be.

That’s okay. For now, all you need to know is that having courage and an open mind is a great start to creating your dream career.

​By this point you’ve got your list, and you’ve hopefully got yourself in a great mindset for success. What’s next?

In this course, I not only want to teach you about creating work that you love, I also want to teach you how to make a great living doing it. Why? Because as we talked about in yesterday’s lesson, finding yourself overworked and underpaid in any career, even one you are passionate about, does not leave you feeling happy and purposeful.

So let’s talk about what it takes to become financially successful as well. The good news is, there is one big key to making sure that the work you do makes you a great income. Of course, there are a million tiny details that can affect the dollar side of things, but this is the big one.

Your income is a direct result of how many people you are able to help and how much you are able to help them.

Read that again, because it’s super important. The greater the number of people you can help in a given time, and the more life-changing the help you provide them is, the more money you will make.

You see, people are very happy to pay others for things that change their life. Think about your own life and write down one or two things you are incredibly happy to have the opportunity to pay for.

I’ll give you an example of one of mine:

Amazon Prime.

I love Amazon Prime. It makes my life so much easier! The prices are often much lower than what you can buy in big box stores, I save time by not having to drive all over town to find that one thing that nobody seems to carry in store, I save on gas, and it’s super easy to just scroll through the Amazon listings and pick the item I want.

Amazon Prime is one of those things I am super happy to pay for. And I’m not alone. Millions love and use Prime every week to get the best deals on things they need.

Amazon is a multi-billion dollar company simply because they are able to help an enormous amount of people at once in a way that those people desperately want and need. In other words, they are providing a ton of VALUE! And value = $$$

Okay, I’m certainly not saying that you need to be the next Jeff Bezos- not by a long shot. I’m simply trying to hammer in the idea that providing true value to as many people as possible is the key to becoming financially successful in your venture.

​This is the big question. If you can get this right, you basically have a business plan. (And I say that as someone who has launched and run three businesses years before turning 30!)

To be in business, you need to help people in some way. Maybe you can teach them a skill, like how to become a great photographer or how to do their makeup perfectly. Or perhaps your work provides them with entertainment! If you are a writer, comedian, or cartoonist, you would fall under this category.

Another way you can help people is by making a previously difficult, annoying, or tedious task more convenient. I’ll give you an example.

Have you ever heard of the Fresh20?

The Fresh20 is a website that is all about healthy eating for families. The way that they make previously annoying tasks easy? Meal plans!

The Fresh20 offers a membership model where people can sign up for a low monthly fee, and receive an affordable shopping list and 20 minute healthy meal plans for the entire month.

Gone are the days of wandering the grocery store trying to figure out what to buy, slaving in the kitchen for an hour every night, and eating unhealthy quickie meals just to be done with it. And guess what? This model resonated with so many people, the company has now become a multi million dollar company.

Simply put, they found a way to help an unlimited number of people every month with their website in a way that makes their customer’s lives a whole lot easier.

How can you do the same thing with your passions? Brainstorm at least one way you could deliver this kind of value for each of the passions on your short list.

​At this point you should have both a short list of passions and an idea or two for each of them on how to provide massive value.

Before we wrap up today, I want you to consider the idea of combining two of your passions into something new that you think there might be a good market for.

Let me explain.

Have you ever heard the old adage, “birds of a feather flock together”? While this phrase often insinuates something about a person’s character and the people they surround themselves with, it can also apply to hobbies and lifestyles!

Here are some examples:

• People who love yoga are often interested in meditation as well
• Entrepreneurs are often also interested in personal development
• People with toddlers are often interested in quick, healthy meal ideas

People in general tend to flock together based on their interests and their lifestyle. And since you are a person too, I’m betting that two of the passions on your short list probably go together as well!

Now keep in mind that it is perfectly okay if you choose to go with just one of the passions on your list. If you are a die hard mountain biker and that’s what you want to create work around, go for it!

There is no reason you must combine two of your passions. However, it can be a great thing to do if some of the passions you have are super broad. For example, personal finance is a pretty broad topic and it could be a tad difficult to break into.

But what about personal finance for millenials? Or personal finance for travelers? Maybe you could help provide personal finance ideas and coaching specifically for bloggers, because you’ve been there and done that and you know you could really help that particular market.

I’ll give you a few more examples of combining two passions into a relatable, narrowed market.

Babies + yoga = You could offer prenatal yoga videos for new mothers online

Writing + video games = You could run a blog giving tips to other gamers on how to advance in various games

Makeup + entrepreneurship = You could coach other women on how to start profitable businesses in the beauty industry

Photography + home decor = You could use your photo skills to start a website and provide budget home decor inspiration for millenial aged women.

​We've covered a lot in today's post! So I've got a question for you that I hope you'll take some time to think on. Even better, grab a notebook and start jotting down any ideas that come to you from this question.

This will help you really nail down what matters to you, how you want to impact the world, and how others can benefit from your knowledge.

How to Start A Career and Business You Love - Part 2

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