Many of us are waiting for "their dream job". Meanwhile, some people do not want to wait for that hypothetic moment to come, and decide to create it. Matthieu DARDAILLON, founder of Ticket for Change, a French entrepreneur dedicated to make the world a better place, is one of these rare people. In this article, he gives very meaningful insights et advice that you should all consider very seriously!
We are all willing to align our passions, our talents and our values to use our professional life to make a difference to society, while earning enough money at the end of the month to pay our bills and live a comfortable life. And it is totally right to look for it.
100 000 hours of work... to do what ?
Simply put, we are probably spending at least 40 hours at work every week, or 2 000 hours every year. During our lifetime, it is almost 100 000 hours that we spend at work.
How to best use this tremendous amount of time? What can we achieve? What challenges can we overcome? How can we contribute to make the world a better place? For what do we want to be remembered for?
Finding our dream job is crucial, because actually it's much more than just a job. It is related to our life purpose, our contribution to the world and our relationships with others. Once you get your dream job, you are more productive and - much more important - happier. Indirectly, you also inspire other people to find their dream job.
Who can change anything ?
If you are just like Matthieu and myself, considering sense in a job as a priority, then keep calm and get prepared to change the world. Indeed, the good news is that we are not alone. We are part of a generation - call it generation Y or millennial generation - that put the meaning of the job at the top of priorities when it comes to choose a position.
We are part of a generation that know its responsibilities: 84 percent of millennials believe their generation has a duty to change the world, and 82 percent are convinced they have the power to do so. Youth unemployment has never been that critical, and the only way to create a future is to start now.
If you are reading this article, you probably have the determination to find your ideal job, but you have not found it yet. You want to maximize your impact, but don't know how to do it. Probably you feel a lot of frustration looking for it and not finding it. Do not panic, this is pretty common; lots of people are in your case. Time for tips ☺.
Ask yourself questions
To make a difference in the world, you have to know quite precisely your passions, your talents, and the causes you want to fight for. If you are not clear with that, you will look for something, without being able to recognize the thing when you will finally find it.
Here are some very essential questions to answer:
•What are your main passions? What makes you happy?
•What are your main talents? What are you good at? What makes you unique?
•What do you want to achieve through your professional life?
And here is a very simple method to get the most out of the answers:
•Write all your ideas on a notebook;
•Leave it for a few days, take the time to think about something else;
•Then read your notes again;
•Do it again and again, leaving a few days between each consultation;
It might seem too simple, but it works. Even when you are not thinking about it, your brain works on what you wrote down. Sooner or later, some brilliant idea will pop out of your mind.
You will never be too curious
Curiosity is key. A good way of being curious is to ask as many questions as possible about everything. Always try to understand why and how things work the way they work! But the best way to make sure you are curious is to get yourself out of your comfort zone: make sure you meet with people, areas and topics you would usually never have got to know about. You will know better where you feel more at-ease and feel where you can add value.
The unknown shouldn't scare you: it may be very uncomfortable at the beginning, but this is when you will learn most on yourself and how the world works. Don't forget that you can only improve what you can measure, and you can only measure things you know about!
To put that back in a professional context, don't be scared by realizing professional experiences off the beaten track. Having a career plan does not mean that you have to do everything just like everyone does. Provoke opportunities by networking with very different people (innovators, entrepreneurs, managers, activists, artists): opportunities can happen from anywhere at any moment. The better you are connected, the higher is the probability that opportunities will happen!
Don't wait to know everything before doing something
Because you will never hear it enough: don't wait for knowing everything before doing something!
When I tell you that you should always try to understand, it doesn't mean that you should do that in a passive way. Try, challenge, act, but do something ! Our world has become too complex to know everything about it... If you feel the need to know everything, well... you won't do anything at all! If you have an idea in mind, start it. Now. Just like entrepreneurs do, and they are quite far from knowing everything. Great entrepreneurs are actually entrepreneur of their own life, and they are able to change their lives by taking risks and seize opportunities.
Doing this, you will gain in confidence - and probably in happiness because you will see you are doing something valuable. In the meantime, Matthieu asks me to tell you that the most important thing to do is finally to make it happen.