Can you see a clear road to your dream job? If you cannot, there is a way for you to still run after and land your dream job. Regardless of your age or the length of time that you’ve been working your current role or position, don’t give up! So, how do you find it? In this busied and noisy world we live in, it is difficult to quiet your heart and hear the voices of your inner soul. You can’t hear what your heart desires. You must learn to quiet the noise around you and listen to your inner voice. Shut off your devices. Stop and listen. You will hear a voice, a yearning pointing you towards your dream job. Not only can you listen to your inner voice, but you can also use your life’s disappointments as a compass to lead you to your dream job. You may suddenly be out of work due to a corporate takeover or a reduction in force. You may have been fired, or your spouse may have moved you across the country. Maybe you’ve just started waking up every day realizing that you hate your job, even though you loved your job when you initially accepted it. You had a season in your life where you enjoyed every aspect of your job. Suddenly the job has changed or you have changed, and you know that it isn’t your destiny anymore. Suddenly you hate your job. You feel that the market is tough now, and you’d rather sit in a job you hate than stretch the limits and run after what you perceive is a big risk. You are stuck. You are stuck in a job that you don’t like and a daily routine that leaves you dissatisfied. The bus isn’t taking you where you want it to go. You don’t realize that you are driving the bus. Stop sitting in the back of the bus hoping that it will take you where you want it to go. Think about your life as if it were a project. You have to project manage it. When you went to college, you planned your schedule. You planned the action steps to get you there. When you got married or possibly when you planned a cross country trip, you sat down and plotted action steps and To Do’s. Now, turn that focus to your life. Create the tactical action steps that move you closer to your dream job. Start with a very simple “step one” and plot that tactical step on your calendar. Deb Maicach worked for 20 years at Tenet Healthcare. She worked her way up from a programmer to the Vice President of Patient Management Systems, responsible for over 1,800 systems installed at Tenet Hospitals. She took on a new project in a new unit that opened up. 18 months in, the program was suddenly cut and she found herself out of job. She had lost her husband of a heart attack a few years prior. So, losing her career just a few short years later made her feel disoriented. She had felt that her ‘bad thing’ had already happened. She felt lost. She was not young anymore and didn’t know what she would do next. She was miserable. She was close to 300 pounds. She accepted a role as an administrative assistant and enjoyed it. She worked for a start-up for 5 years that then lost its funding. There she was, 62 years old, wondering what she’d do next. She pounded the pavement and got a lot of interviews. “When I was trying to find a job, everyone loved me but no one wanted to hire me. They kept finding a better candidate. They said I was over qualified. I took a huge risk. I went into my savings and funded a Personal Concierge business to help people get done all the things in their lives that they cannot get to. I love it. I run errands, arrange closets, grocery shop, pay bills, and take care of things that others can’t find time for. I make people’s days easier.” –Deb Maicach, Deb at Your Service Personal Concierge Service Her advice to others who face difficulties and can’t find a job they love: “Take the risk. If you never fail you’ve never risked anything, and if you never risk you’ll never succeed. You’ve got to risk to get the reward. I held my breath and jumped in and I’ve never looked back. I love what I do. ” Annette Sonnen was a heart/lung transplant nurse that had worked for some the most prestigious organizations in the US, including Baylor Health System in Dallas, Texas, and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. When she began having children, she found that the job didn’t provide enough flexibility and that it was difficult to see a path to leadership in a crowded space of nurses. She quit her job and decided to be a stay at home mom. She discovered about six months into that journey that she missed the mental challenge and human interaction. She at first thought about going back to nursing but changed her plan when she attended a home clothing show. She found that it was ridiculously fun, insanely flexible and would allow her to work with women. She started working with this clothing company in the fall of 2005. When she first told her husband about it, he thought she was crazy. She researched it and brought back details. He encouraged her to try it. She made back her initial investment within 2 months. Within a year and a half, she was back to making what she had been earning as a nurse. Last week, her son scolded her for picking him up late from school. He said, “You don’t even work. Why are you late?” At first her feelings were hurt. Then, she realized that this job had done exactly what she had wanted it to do. She was able to generate a six-figure income and be available for her children, and her kids didn’t even think she had a job. That to her is success. “I love what I do. When I do it, time stands still. It doesn’t even feel like work to me. I enjoy working with women and doing what I’m doing.”–Annette Sonnen, Independent Consultant/Clothing Company Her advice to others on the journey is this: “Figure out what is it, that when you are doing it you are so happy and content that time stands still. Focus in on what job fits into that schema. Take tests to find your strengths and skill sets. Don’t sit in that rut. There are lots of opportunities out there for you to be doing what you love. Take an action step to get yourself there. Decide to take the first step.” Go create a job you’ll love.