This is one in a series of interviews of self help experts and bloggers in the Tips from Masters series.
Jonathan Fields is author and career coach who in his recent book “Career Renegade” shares how to make a great living doing what you love.
1. How did you find your passion? What do you think is the best way to find it?
My challenge has never been to find my passion, but rather to choose among many passions and, on a professional level, figure out how to generate a substantial living from certain passions that traditionally don’t generate much cash. I also don’t really buy that we don’t know what our passions are.
Ask a kid what they love to do and they’ll rattle off any number of activities. What changes when we’re older is that we subconsciously tack on an ugly qualifier. We don’t just ask what we love to do, we ask what we love to do that’ll make a boatload of money. Bad idea. Because, adding on the money filter allows us to literally fool ourselves into thinking we don’t know what we love to do when, really, we do know, we just don’t know how to make money at it.
So, ask the do what you love question, first, without regard to money. Then, see if there’s a readily apparent mainstream path to income. If so, follow it. If not, before you bail, rise to the challenge of “going renegade” and exploring unconventional ways to turn your passion into a living. My book, Career Renegade, is almost entirely about this process.
2. How do you go from goal setting to implementation? How do you make sure that you take constant action toward your goals?
Three words…mindset, mindset, mindset. Most people look at mindset training as some kind of foofy motivational garbage that poor people who are down on their luck turn to instead of medication, religion or the lottery. Truth is, the most successful people in the world often spend a substantial amount of time, energy and money cultivating the mindset needed to push past the fear, doubt, conventional wisdom and judgment that accompanies the quest for success.
So, when you ask how to go from goal setting to implementation, the answer a little bit in planning and strategy and a whole lot in learning and cultivating the daily mindset practices that will fuel consistent, daily action.
3. How do you stay focused? How do you keep distractions at bay?
I’m sorry, what were you saying? LOL. Focus is my greatest challenge, largely because the process of creation is my muse and ideas for new ventures, books, experiences, products and services come gallivanting into my head all day long.
Two tools I’ve found very effective, though, are meditation and batching.
Daily meditation or mindset training (yes…ANYONE can do it, if you find the right approach) helps create space and clarity. But, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, often months, but the cumulative effect can be immensely powerful. It also reduces what’s known as “attentional blink,” momentary lapses in attention that lead you to literally miss flashes of what’s going on in front of your face. We all experience this all day long, but mindset training reduces this over time and literally allows you to see and experience more than the person next to you.
Batching is a simple productivity technique where instead of responding to things as they happen, you batch certain inputs, requests and stimuli into certain categories, like phone calls, social media or writing, then set aside specific times to take care of everything in each category. When you do this, you minimize the very real ramp-up costs of switchtasking and accomplish a lot more in the same period of time.
If you want to learn more from Jonathan, visit his blog, jonathanfields.com, or read his book, “Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love”.
This is one in a series of interviews of self help experts and bloggers in the Tips from Masters series.
Jonathan Fields is author and career coach who in his recent book Career Renegade shares how to make a great living doing what you love. Jonathan writes at his blog, www.jonathanfields.com, about success, leadership, life balance and today he’ll share with you some profound tips on mindset training, focus and passion.
1. How did you find your passion? What do you think is the best way to find it?
My challenge has never been to find my passion, but rather to choose among many passions and, on a professional level, figure out how to generate a substantial living from certain passions that traditionally don’t generate much cash. I also don’t really buy that we don’t know what our passions are.
Ask a kid what they love to do and they’ll rattle off any number of activities. What changes when we’re older is that we subconsciously tack on an ugly qualifier. We don’t just ask what we love to do, we ask what we love to do that’ll make a boatload of money. Bad idea. Because, adding on the money filter allows us to literally fool ourselves into thinking we don’t know what we love to do when, really, we do know, we just don’t know how to make money at it.
So, ask the do what you love question, first, without regard to money. Then, see if there’s a readily apparent mainstream path to income. If so, follow it. If not, before you bail, rise to the challenge of “going renegade” and exploring unconventional ways to turn your passion into a living. My book, Career Renegade, is almost entirely about this process.
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