For those of you who are not baseball fans or a

Why do I mention this?

Freddy was on one of the worst teams in baseball, my Pittsburgh Pirates. Even though he was on the worst team he did not let that affect his performance at work. It would be very easy to let your individual performance suffer whne the organization you work for is going down faster than the Titanic in icy water.

Do you allow your individual performance at work slack when your organization is falling apart all around you? Or do you let your individual performance slack when the project you are working on begins to fall apart?

A true test of character is when everything around you is falling apart but you are still able to hold it together. We can all learn something from Freddy on how to preserve in the face of a sinking ship.

I am giving a speech tonight at West Virginia University on my book The 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated.  However, I am focusing on the last chapter of my book “Find Your Passion and Not Your Job!”

 

Here is an overview:

 

How to find your passion

-          Get real life work experience while you are in school.  Students should be thinking about internships, special projects, or any type of experience they can gain while they are school.  The job market is too competitive to think that a degree is good enough.  Getting out into the workforce is one of the best ways to determine what your passion is and what it is not.

-          Mentors – find a mentor at school, work, and home to help you find your way in life.  We cannot do life alone, we need help.  A big help can come from someone who is willing to directly or indirectly mentor you.  Everyone who is successful today is successful because of the people around them.  The lone ranger mentality does not fly in business or life.

-          Childhood experience – what did you do while you were a kid that might have been something you can do now as an adult?  What were your interests?  Your likes?  Dislikes?  The seeds of our passion have been woven into our lives since we were children.  Think about your own childhood.  It might give you clues to your career passion.

 

How to miss your passion

-          Indecisiveness – many students never get over what I call the “Noah Mentality.”  My son, Noah, is nearly eight months old so his attention span is about as good as a fly.  He goes from one thing to the next and leaves a path of destruction behind him as he goes.  For many college grads this mentality has not changed much.  Indecisiveness can leave a person passionless.  How many majors did you have in college?  How many jobs have you had since graduation?  The grass is always greener mentality will also leave us passionless.

-          Choices – the choices we make throughout life can force us off our path of finding our passion.  The choices we make have consequences.  Sometimes these consequences will cause our pursuit of purpose and passion to take a back seat because we are forced to pay for the mistakes we make.  Consider your ways before you take the wrong path.

 

This is a highlight of my speech tonight.  It is laced with stories and humor to entertain and teach at the same time.

 

I will give a full report of how the night went tomorrow.

I wanted to comment on a Yahoo Finance article today about Knowing When To Quit.

They make some great points about finding direction in your life after graduation and determine when would be a good time to quit if you are unhappy with your current employer. Here are some things that stuck out to me.

1. Approach your job search with a plan in mind and not haphazardly.

2. Be willing to change your focus after graduation because you may not like working in the field you have studied for the past four or five years. That may be a difficult decision but a necessary one for your happiness.

3. Don’t stay at a job where you are completely unhappy. If you are dealing with a boss that is very difficult to work for you may do more harm than good to yourself over the long run. Not everyone can work together effectively. If this person does not fit well with your work styles don’t kill yourself, move on and find someone who does work well with you.

4. If you cannot stand working for someone ask to be moved within the company to another supervisor or look for another job.

5. When you are unhappy at work you will be less productive there and at home. Find a job you like, but more importantly find your passion!

Happy reading.