Making a living...or a dying?

"We will spend well in excess of 100,000 hours of our lives working at our choice of vocation. The sheer math of a per-hour rate makes this decision very important. You must plan your work and then work your plan. Happy and effective people have found a vocation for which they have a natural aptitude and have committed themselves to excellence in that vocation. These are the people who have a vacation for a vocation.  Everyone has some natural talent or aptitude in one or more areas.  If you can identify those areas you not only will be happier and perform more successfully in that role, but you will also become better paid for that...When you have a natural talent or aptitude, coupled with desire and experience, the result is productivity plus." -Dave Ramsey. 

"The secret of success is focus of purpose." -Thomas Edison

So true. How many people do you know, or maybe even yourself, that wake up every work-week morning, absolutely dreading the job that they are headed to? Is this truly making a living, or as a one of my favorite personal finance books, Your Money or Your Life, states, "Where’s all the life we supposedly made at work? For many of us, isn’t the truth closer to ‘making a dying’? Aren’t we killing ourselves — our health, our relationships, our sense of joy and wonder — for our jobs? We are sacrificing our lives for money — but it’s happening so slowly we barely notice."

Ok, so what do I do now?  I can relate to many of you who aren't truly satisfied with your field of work.  You know, without a shadow of a doubt, that your current job is not one that you want to do until retirement, or one that you even look forward to going to.  My personal suggestions would be to: 1) PRAY: Seek God's will for your life. 2) Be proactive; do everything you can to go from where you are, to where you truly want to be. 3) Seek counsel from your pastor, family members and friends, especially those who are currently involved in the industry/field you seek to enter. 4) Don't choose an occupation simply for the money. 5) DON'T quit your current job without figuring out where you will be earning an income!  You know what your passion is and you know that you want to do it for the rest of your life...but the fact is, you've got to figure out how you are going to earn income doing that.  Don't make a rash decision, digging yourself into a deeper hole!  As Dave Ramsey states, "Do not quit your job today!  Do not get all excited and destroy your monthly budget by making a rash decision.  You can begin the process of discovery and transformation today."  

The bottom line-no pun intended, is that forty years from now, I do not want to look back on my life in disappointment, thinking, "I've spent this much of my life, doing THAT?  What was I thinking?".  Seek true fulfillment!