Hey guys!

Today I want to talk about something that was a real struggle for me when I was first starting out on my entrepreneurial journey.

Some people are born just knowing exactly what they want to do for a career. I wasn’t that person! I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but that doesn’t really say much.

In my early twenties I worked a few jobs that I didn’t really love. I knew I wanted to set out on my own and have the freedom and control of my own business. But doing what? What was I inspired and passionate about?

If you’re working in a field you aren’t ecstatic about, but aren’t sure where to go from here, this post is for you. I’m going to outline the 10 big steps and questions you need to ask yourself to figure out the ideal entrepreneurial path for you!

Note that I didn’t say “figure out the perfect entrepreneurial path for you”, because frankly I don’t think that exists. Instead, we’re going to take a deep look into your strengths, hobbies, and activities to narrow down an AWESOME business for you to get started on right away.

Let’s get to it.

Your first big task is to make a huge list of things you love doing. Whip out a notepad or pull up a Word document and spend at least a half hour brain dumping the things you love to do, see, talk about, and experience.

Keep in mind, the things you love can be TANGIBLE (ie. photography, writing, horses, dancing, decorating.)

They can also be INTANGIBLE (ie. helping others, making things beautiful, creating, teaching.)

Don’t worry about how you’d turn any of these hobbies into a business just yet. The most important thing here is to just get a big list going that you can reference for later.

Here’s a funny thing about people: Most of us are really, really bad at diagnosing our strengths and weaknesses, but our close friends and family can spot them in an instant.

Today I want you to use that to your advantage! Pick at least three people with whom you have a close relationship. If you can contact five people, even better. If you are unsure of what to say, I’ll give you a little script to follow.

Hi X,

How’s it going? I’ve got a question that I could use your help with! I’m in the process of assessing where I’m at in my career, and I’m looking for some outside input on my greatest strengths. Maybe you can help me with these-

What do you think I am naturally good at? What kinds of strengths seem to come easily to me?

Thanks so much!

Love, X

Think back over the last few years. What kinds of things do your friends and family members consistently come to you for advice and input on?

This simple question will give you some serious ideas on your strengths and talents. Maybe people regularly ask you for advice on nutrition and healthy recipes. Or maybe you have a knack for decorating your home beautifully on a budget, and they want to do the same thing.

When I was doing this exercise, I realized that there were at least 5-6 close people in my life who had previously called me up to chat about entrepreneurship and/or personal finance. If they had a new business idea or were thinking about making a career change, they often asked for my opinions and advice. Bingo!

At the bottom of your big list from Step 1, write down a short list of advice topics you have received from others. If you’re really struggling to come up with something, ask! They’ll be happy to refresh your memory.

Hopefully at this point you have a huge list of hobbies and strengths you can draw on to help decide what your next career move should focus on. The next step, especially if you feel like your list is a little short, is to try some new things!

I know, I know. Sounds like kind of a pain, right?

Here’s the thing. Sometimes the thing that would be perfect for you to turn into your future career, is something you just haven’t experienced yet! It’s pretty hard to come up with an idea for something you’ve never done before.

After I ended my first business, I didn’t know what I wanted my second one to be. I’d learned a ton of lessons from the first that I was eager to apply to a  new venture, but even though I thought long and hard about it I just couldn’t figure out what my next passionate career should be.

Turns out, it was because I’d never really done it before! My husband was an avid hobby photographer, and he was the one who turned me on to photography. Sure, I’d taken a photo class in high school, but that was it. I had no idea I wanted to go into photography until I left my comfort zone and tried it out.

Soon after that I launched our wedding photography business which we run to this day. Awesome!

So my point is, try some new things. Take a class on something you’ve never done before. Go to a Meetup group for something that sounds interesting. If worse comes to worse, look up the list of For Dummies books and pick one up that is new and possibly exciting to you.

Your brain really needs fresh input in order to come up with creative ideas. If you’ve been sitting in the same familiar spot staring at a wall and hoping to come up with the perfect career idea, stop!

Your best ideas will come to you when you are active, preferably outdoors, and in a new place. So make a plan to try some new things that will spark your imagination. Travel to a new city, volunteer somewhere new, just do something fresh!

There is no perfect destiny. I don’t believe that we each have just one specific passion that is the perfect thing for us to pursue.

I’m not saying you should settle for something sub par, but I am encouraging you to choose a topic that scares and excites you and then go for it!

This reminds me a lot of the advice I received when I was shopping for my wedding dress: Find one you adore, and then stop looking.

This is a great time to start narrowing down your big list. Circle the top 3-5 items that light you up inside! You don’t need to decide today. In fact, it’s a good idea to sleep on it and see what sticks to you after a few days.

Here’s a super common mistake many people make when trying to make a passionate career transition. They try to smash ALL OF THEIR PASSIONS into one business!

Here’s the thing. If you try to roll your love for healthy eating, personal finance, parenting a toddler, AND watercolor painting into one business, you’re going to seem jumbled and disorganized.

There aren’t going to be a ton of people who relate to all of your hobbies, and even if they do, it becomes confusing when they come to you for help on painting and then also find a ton of irrelevant information on getting out of debt.

The lesson here is to know that it is perfectly okay (and recommended!) to leave some of your passions as hobbies. You don’t have to give up on them, just enjoy them in your free time outside of work.

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What life lesson have you learned the hard way that you’d like to help others with? What crazy idea would you really like others to adopt?

Oftentimes some of the best passionate careers stem from a burning desire to help others with a problem that the creator has had to struggle through.

This could be something you are currently experiencing (you’re trying to travel the world on a budget, or you’re trying to work your way out of student loans, or you are trying to navigate the world of book publishing.)

Or the struggle could be something you’ve faced in the past that you would really like to see others struggle less with.

Maybe you overcame social anxiety and would like to help others feel more secure in group settings. Or maybe you used to work with shelter animals and learned some great techniques in animal training that you feel would make people relate better with their pets.

Whatever it is, you can use the big experiences in your life to help others and to create a business that you love.

Any career you choose is going to be tough in some regards. That’s pretty much a given. But choosing a topic that brings you alive makes your job feel a lot less like dreadful work and a lot more like fulfilling work.

What things do you currently do for free simply because you love it? What types of activities put you in the feeling of flow where you are creating without hesitation or doubt?

Add these to your big list or highlight them if they  are already on there.

Let me rephrase that.  You’ve just inherited $100 billion. You have more money to live off of than you could ever use to live off of and play with.

After you’ve exhausted yourself of fancy adventures and shiny objects, what do you do to impact the world?

If you had to the opportunity to wake up every day with all of your needs met to the fullest extent, what would you do next? What would you do to feel purposeful and needed in the world?

If you can answer this question, you’ve hit pretty darn close to home!

Is your mind spinning with ideas yet?

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this, it’s that there is nothing wrong with taking your time to figure out what your next career step should be. Ask some questions, experience some new things, and give yourself the time and space to really assess where you want to go from here.

Then when an idea hits you like a lightning bolt, hang onto it. Write your idea down and add photos to it! Go all out.

What does that dream look like in detail?

Make a Pinterest board or cut pictures out of some magazines for a quick vision board. You will need this clarity and vision in front of you as your business takes shape. 

Question: What top three passionate work ideas most interest you? Where do you feel most stuck in the process of finding work you love?

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