Jamie Smart

  • About
    • Jamie Smart
    • CLARITY / Subtractive Psychology
    • Media
  • Programmes
    • ClarityPro Membership Programme
    • Career Transition Blueprint
    • Thriving Coaches Blueprint
    • The CLARITY Certification Training
    • Coaching & Mentoring
    • Clarity 1:1 Intensive with Jamie Smart
  • Self-study
  • Corporate
  • Free
    • Blog
    • Thriving Coaches Podcast
    • GET CLARITY Podcast
  • Books
    • Clarity
    • Little Book of Clarity
    • Results
    • Little Book of Results
  • Contact
    • General contact details
    • Book Jamie to speak at your event

JST 225 – The 5 Paradoxical Clues To The Work You’re Here To Do

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Jamie Smart

Photo courtesy of Kevin Dooley and Flickr

“Anything on earth you want to do is play. Anything on earth you have to do is work. Play will never kill you, work will. I never worked a day in my life.”
– Dr Leila Denmark (the USA’s oldest doctor)

I often hear people saying things like, “I’d do what I love, if only I knew what it was” and “I’d do what I love, if only I knew how to do it.” Back at the beginning of the year, I did a Facebook Live broadcast on my business page called “The 5 Paradoxical Clues To The Work You’re Here To Do”. People really loved it, so I thought I’d share the 5 paradoxical clues here in the JST over the next 5 weeks. So here’s the first clue:

Paradoxical Clue 1: You enjoy it – it’s fascinating to you
I was once being interviewed on the BBC, and I explained to the interviewer that everyone already knows (at least on some level) what they’d love to do. The interviewer challenged me, asking, “What about people who don’t know what they want to do?” I asked her for an example, and she said that she struggled with this herself. So I asked her a few “cheesy coaching questions”, for example…

– If you could wave a magic wand and have everything the way you want it to be, what would that look like?

– What would you want to do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

– What would you want to do if you knew it was OK to fail?

– What would you do if all work paid the same, and you could get whatever work you like?

– What would you want to do if you knew you were going to be happy, secure, successful and loved, whether it worked out or not?

– What would you want to do if you didn’t have to be unhappy about not doing it?

The BBC interviewer said, “I’d open a holistic therapy and wellbeing clinic.”

As you can imagine, I was a bit surprised, and I said, “Wow! Where did that come from?” She explained that she’d been being trained as a holistic therapist for years, and was completely fascinated with it, but she was afraid of ‘making the leap’ because it might not work out.

And this was when I realised something big. Saying, “I’d do what I love if I only knew what it was / knew how” is a lot more ‘socially acceptable’ than saying, “I’d do what I love if I wasn’t scared of failure and criticism.”

It’s not just easier to say to other people. It’s easier to say to yourself.

And this is where it gets paradoxical. The thing you turn out to *love* doing, may be something that you don’t know how to do yet, or even one that’s frightening to you at the moment.

Here’s an example: I LOVE public speaking. I enjoy it so much that I’d do it even if it wasn’t my profession. But here’s the thing:

I used to be terrified of public speaking. My legs would shake and my voice would tremble. The colour would drain from my face and my mouth would dry up.

When I first started realising the work I’m here to do, I had a sudden image of me speaking to hundreds of people, and it scared the hell out of me!

And that’s the paradox: While your greatest gift is going to be something you enjoy thoroughly… something that’s fascinating to you… something you’d do even if you weren’t getting paid for it…

You might start out being not very good at it, or even scared of doing it.

But that’s OK. The simple key is this: just take the next step. You don’t have to do th whole journey at once. One step at a time is just fine.

Jamie

Jamie Smart, Sunday Times Bestselling Author, Speaker and Executive Coach

Jamie Smart
Sunday Times Bestselling Author, Speaker and Executive Coach

PLUS: Whenever you’re ready… here are 5 ways I can help you get the clarity and results that matter to you:

1. Hire me to speak at your event
If you want an entertaining and impactful keynote speech or breakout session for your conference, offsite or town hall meeting, click here https://www.jamiesmart.com/book-jamie-to-speak-about/
If you’re a coach…
2. Join The Thriving Coaches Facebook group
Connect with the growing community of like-minded transformation professionals who are passionate about exponentially increasing their grounding, impact and their livelihood. You can join for free here.
3. Take part in the Thriving Coaches Blueprint
We’re putting together a new practice-building group at The Thriving Coaches Blueprint in August. We’ll be won’t be opening the doors for a couple of months, but if you’d like to find out more now and put your name on the wait list, go to https://www.jamiesmart.com/thriving/
If you’re looking to change job, career or move from FTE to something more fulfilling…
4. Join the Transition Launchpad facebook group
This community is for you if you’re thinking about changing your career or moving from full-time employment to something more fulfilling and “on-purpose” for you. You can join for free here.
5. Take part in Escape Velocity: The Transition Blueprint.
If you’re ready to start taking action and transition to doing fulfilling work, the doors on this programme open in June.  Click here to let us know you’re interested and we’ll get back to you with details and to find out whether you’re a good fit for the programme (and vice versa). I’m Interested
PLUS: check these out :

Listen to the ‘Get Clarity’ Podcast www.jamiesmart.com/claritynow/
Listen to The Thriving Coaches Podcast www.jamiesmart.com/tcp
This entry was posted in Clarity, Coaching with Clarity and tagged clarity, Coaching with clarity. Bookmark the permalink

Click here to cancel reply.

Add Your Comment

Your email will not be published.

  • Topics

    • Clarity
    • Clarity Roundup
    • Coaching with Clarity
    • Connection
    • Enthusiasms
    • Evolution
    • Featured
    • Friday Shot Of Clarity
    • Innate Thinking
    • Insight
    • JST
    • Main Feature
    • Main Feature 2
    • Media Interest
    • Misunderstanding
    • Performance
    • Persuasion and Influence
    • Podcast-GCP
    • Podcast-PCP
    • Podcast-RMP
    • Podcast-TCP
    • Podcast-YEPP
    • Sports Performance
    • The Fourth Wave
    • Thought Revolution
    • Transition
    • Uncategorized
    • Understanding
    • Vision
    • World Clarity
    • Recent
    • Popular
    • Comments
    • #113 – COACHING DEMO: Am I Good Enough – Thriving Coaches Podcast

      July 17, 2023 1 Comment
    • #112 – INTERVIEW: Wisdom Doesn’t Have Rules, Sam Goldfinch – Thriving Coaches Podcast

      April 11, 2023 No comments
    • #070 – INTERVIEW: Coaching in the Midst of Crisis with Mahima Shrestha – Get Clarity Podcast

      March 28, 2023 No comments
    • #069 – INTERVIEW: Dr Bill Pettit – One Cause & One Cure – Part 2 – Get Clarity Podcast

      March 17, 2023 No comments
    • #068 – INTERVIEW: Dr Bill Pettit – One Cause & One Cure – Get Clarity Podcast

      February 23, 2023 No comments
    • Andrew Strauss: Was the pressure all in his mind?

      September 3, 2012 81 Comments
    • Navigating in Times of Uncertainty, Complexity and Chaos – Part 1

      September 17, 2012 45 Comments
    • JST 248 – The Future of Psychology (and Humanity)? Part 1

      January 23, 2019 34 Comments
    • Clarity: the killer app

      November 10, 2012 33 Comments
    • The Ultimate Leverage Point

      February 28, 2012 32 Comments
  • Connect with us:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • © 2023 Clarity Academy Ltd
  • Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT