Is This What’s Stopping You From Chasing Your Dreams?

March 18, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Career Direction, Motivation 

Maybe you’re thinking: “I have no time … to learn a new skill … to follow my passion … to develop a passion … to build my dream … to dabble in a new sideline business (that I can grow into my retirement empire!”

No time. Too busy. This piece then is for you. Also have just written CVs for several very high earning Executives and am amazed at how much they pack into their days and months. Astonishing. They’re focussed alright. Maybe that’s a key. First knowing what we want. Then going for it.

I’m rambling. Read this rather. Thought provoking piece from Seth Godin.

But it’s better than TV

At the local health food store lunch buffet, they offer stir fried tempeh.
I never get it. Not because I don’t like it, but because there are always so many other things on the buffet that I prefer.

That’s why I don’t watch TV. At all. There are so many other things I’d rather do in that moment.

Broadcast TV was a great choice when a> there weren’t a lot of other options and b> when everyone else was watching the same thing, so you needed to see it to be educated.

Now, though, you could:

  • Run a little store on eBay
  • Write a daily blog
  • Write a novel
  • Start an online community about your favorite passion
  • Go to meetups in your town
  • Volunteer to tutor a kid, in person or online
  • Learn a new language, verbal or programming
  • Write hand written thank you notes each evening to people who helped you out or did a good job
  • Produce small films and publish them online
  • Listen to the one thousand most important operas
  • Read a book or two every evening
  • Play a game of Scrabble with your family

None of them are perfect. Each of them are better than TV.

Clay Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work instead of to waste. Add that up across a million or ten million people and the output is astonishing. He calls it cognitive surplus and it’s one of the underappreciated world-changing stories of our time.

[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/03/but-its-better-than-tv.html]

Oh and remember – if you’re not sure what you want, if you feel directionless and a bit lost – go to “Life’s Greatest Question” here: it’ll guide through the exact steps you need to get the focus and passion high achievers always seem to have naturally. The link is safe. Go there now.

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    Gerard le Roux

    [Updated Nov 2011]

    Hi, I'm Gerard le Roux, a CV writer and job search coach - published in The Star and Financial Mail and heard on Radio 702 and SAfm. I help people get more interviews and job offers.



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