The question is not,”What do you want to do when you grow up?”
It’s, “Who do you want to be?”
How do you want to contribute?
What legacy do you want to leave when you’re gone?
It might be part of what you do for a living. It might not. More likely, it will be a whole-person approach to living.
Ask the right question and you’ll get a better answer.
Here’s an idea:
Copy all the details from a job description on LinkedIn, then plug them into an AI (Claude is the best).
Then ask Claude, “Based on the information in this job posting, what can you tell me about the company and what I could expect from the role?“
You’d be surprised at how much you can glean from the answer.
Take it a step further: have Claude create a tailored resume specifically for this job based on your LinkedIn profile or a description of your work history. No need to spend hours on each job posting when your assistant can do it for you.
While you’re at it, why not ask Claude to help you decide what steps to take to ensure you’re a standout candidate for the role? He might suggest training, courses, or a certification you need to obtain for other roles like this.
You might even ask him to lay out a roadmap for engaging with people at the company, making connections and first contacts so that you aren’t just a faceless resume in the pile.
They are already using AI to screen everyone out without so much as a second thought. Why not use it yourself as your personal agent?
Movie stars have them; now so do you.
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Many of the greatest business and self-help books of all time are woefully outdated.
And I don’t mean the examples used in the books. The working world has changed so much that the underlying assumptions on which the books are based no long apply.
Work hard and get promoted. You’ll make more money.
Move up the ladder for more responsibility, greater impact, and a nicer life.
Specialize in a certain field or department. That’s how you win.
The problem is the ladder is gone. There’s nothing to climb anymore.
Middle managers on are the way out. You’re either a doer or a leader (and often both at the same time).
Specialists are getting replaced by AI. We don’t need as many of them anymore.
Hard work doesn’t really matter much anymore. A computer can work harder, faster, and cheaper than you.
What matters now are remarkable results, unforgettable impact, and connection with other people. And being able to use AI and all the other technology available to us as tools to achieve those three things.
It’s the rare person who stays with one company and gets promoted over and over, making more money each time.
More likely, you’ll bounce around to 15 different companies over your working life, becoming a generalist that can synthesize tons of different fields.
And before you know it, you’re making your own field, your own specialty job that combines everything you’ve learned into something new.
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Are you afraid the path you’re walking is taking you somewhere you don’t want to go?
The former means you should probably keep going.
The latter is a warning from your inner self, your conscience, your child artist… Whatever you want to call that little voice that whispers truth in your ear.
But here’s the problem:
Often the two fears are hard to distinguish. To figure out which it is requires time for introspection, writing, silence… Sometimes even experimentation with what’s scaring you.
Often this fear manifests itself around our careers.
Are you afraid you might fail at being a salesperson? Or does the idea of selling this particular thing make your skin crawl?
Remember: one means you should try. The other means you should rethink your path.
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It’s okay to feel a little stuck sometimes… Stuck not knowing what to do or how to do it to make a change in your life.
Maybe you’re dreaming of a job that you actually enjoy… A job you wake up excited about doing.
Maybe you’re dreaming of time to spend with your family instead of working all that overtime just to make ends meet.
Or maybe you’re dreaming of work that puts your skills and talents to good use doing something that really matters.
But you don’t have a clue where to start or you’re just scared of letting go of the J.O.B. you have now.
It’s okay to feel stuck.
But it’s not okay to stay stuck.
My friend Dan Miller has helped thousands of people take their dreams and develop a plan and act on them with resources like his New York Times Bestseller 48 Days To the Work (and Life) You Love and No More Dreaded Mondays.
He’s going to be hosting a FREE Masterclass that I think you should check out on Thursday, July 15th with two times to choose from — 1 PM CT and 7 PM CT.
“5 Reasons Big Dreamers Get Stuck And How To Blast Through Them To Success”
You can sign up here.
He’ll walk you through those 5 reasons. Chances are one (or some) of them are what’s holding you back from your dreams as well.
He’ll also help you with some immediate action points and some real-life examples of people who have used them so you can start blasting through those stuck points to the success you’ve been dreaming of.
So take action NOW and save your seat for this FREE masterclass.
Click here to sign up.
Cherish your loved ones – they’ll be taken from you when you least expect it.
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I’ve lost three close family members in 18 months. My father-in-law dropped dead of heart failure in December 2019. He was in perfect health.
My uncle died of cancer 6 months later. I had just seen him at Thanksgiving the previous year, and he seemed to be doing just fine.
Then my dad died in May. I had just spoken with him on the phone a month before… He sounded just like his old self. By the time I got to see him, he couldn’t speak or see me. I was able to say goodbye, but I’ll never know if he heard me.
And I might be losing someone else soon.
Tell your family you love them after you finish reading this. Then do it every day from now on.
Serious illness—or even death—can strike you down no matter your age or health.
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My wife and I took the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. We quarantined, wore masks, and did all we were advised to do by the CDC. And both of us still managed to catch it.
My wife had a fever for eight days. I ended up in the ICU on forced oxygen for eight days gasping for breath. Wondering if this was what it felt like to die. The doctors told me had I not come in the night that I did, I would have died in my sleep.
I spent Christmas and New Year’s in a hospital room isolated and alone—except for the occasional nurse or technician. Eight days. And there were people around me even worse off than I was.
I was 30 years old and in perfect health. And I’m still recovering.
Never chase money – you’ll always end up miserable.
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I was in my sweet spot at a job I enjoyed—teaching classes all day and putting my creative skills to use on a daily basis. But I felt I wasn’t making enough money, so I took a promotion.
The money wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. And I wound up in a miserable role that stressed me out more than I could have ever imagined.
Then another offer came my way, a chance to escape that misery, and it came with a decent bump in pay. But I had an uneasy feeling about it during the interviews.
I took it anyway, and it left me just as miserable as I was before, but for different reasons.
It might be a cliche, but find something that makes you happy. Then find a way to make a living doing it. Don’t take jobs you know don’t fit you simply because they offer you more money.
Take any or all of these lessons to heart. Let them guide your actions for the last half of 2021 and beyond.
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I see you there, hiding away to dream about what it would be like if you weren’t in your current J.O.B.
It’s so great to have big dreams.
So what now?
Feel stuck in moving forward with those dreams? Do you want them to become more than just a break-room diversion over a bologna sandwich or a microwave pizza?
My friend Dan Miller has helped thousands of people take their dreams and develop a plan and act on them with resources like his New York Times Bestseller 48 Days To the Work and Life You Love and No More Dreaded Mondays.
He’ll be hosting a FREE Masterclass that you NEED to check out. It’s Thursday, July 15th with two times to choose from — 1 PM CT and 7 PM CT.
“5 Reasons Big Dreamers Get Stuck And How To Blast Through Them To Success”
He’ll walk you through those 5 reasons. Chances are one (or some) of them are holding you back from your dreams as well.
He’ll also help you with some immediate action points and real-life examples of people who’ve used them so you can start blasting through those sticking points to the success you’ve been dreaming of.
So open up those eyes, dreamer, and save your seat TODAY for Dan Miller’s FREE Masterclass.
Some people see this and think I mean “What gets you out of bed in the morning?”
They’d be wrong. Plenty of us have very little that gets us out of bed in the morning.
Maybe we have jobs we hate. Or tough relationships that don’t fulfill us. Or life situations we can’t seem to escape.
If you don’t have that “something” yet, think about it this way:
“What would make you WANT to get out of bed in the morning?”
My “why” has everything to do with my own personal freedom.
But I also feel I have a purpose that involves helping other people find freedom, happiness, and joy in their lives. And I genuinely believe the best way to do that is to help them create and run successful businesses or freelance practices.
Why? Because it’s the best way for them to have the freedom to live life on their terms. To do what they love and help the people they want to help. To make the difference they seek to make in the world.
And I feel like I can achieve that purpose as a copywriter and marketer. That work helps people serve their customers, grow their businesses, and achieve the kind of freedom I’m talking about.
What’s your “why”? Tell me in the comments below.
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“What do I want to do when I grow up?”
We have all asked, or been asked, this question.
But it’s the the wrong one—it has multiple answers that change much too often.
Instead, ask yourself : “who do I want to be?”
How do I want to contribute?
What legacy do I want to leave when I am gone?
It might be part of what you do for a living, but it might not.
More likely, you will approach everything you do in life—your job and your personal relationships—with a new sense of wholeness and possibility.
If we start by asking the wrong question, we will never get the right answer.
But if you ask the right question, you’ll at least be on the path to the right answer.
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“For 95% of people out there, finding something they pretty much like to do most of the time would be a 100% improvement. Shoot for that, and from there, fine-tune toward the ideal.”
–Peter Bowerman, The Well-Fed Writer
Each of us wants to find that dream job that hits every single point on our “ideal career cheat sheet.” So we read, listen, take tests, research, and obsess over and over again without actually ever stepping foot into a field or career to test it out for ourselves, especially if that career is freelancing, entrepreneurship, or any sort of work where you are your own boss.
I’m learning each day what I want more than anything else is freedom and a better, more balanced lifestyle over some ideal dream job I can’t seem to figure out. That is why I’m exploring this freelance writing field. I’m a good writer (good enough), and I enjoy it well enough, and it would give me time and money to explore the other things I love in life–something my current situation doesn’t allow. I can’t say that I absolutely love every second of writing, every article I write, or every item I write about, but what I do love is the freedom.
My mentor, Dan Miller, has a saying: “passion is more developed than discovered.” Try something out and see if a passion for it, or some aspect of it, develops rather than waiting around for some ideal career to magically drop into your lap.
I’m not saying “what the hell–just pick something,” but perhaps I am saying “MERELY pick something.” Take something you think you might enjoy well enough, try it out, and see if it gets you closer to your ideal situation. You won’t know until you actually experience it. Then it becomes a step on the ladder to your ideal “dream career.” It’s a process of discovery and exploration.
I don’t think this quest for dream work is a true-false test, and neither is life. Everything we do is more of an open-ended essay question you get to write yourself.
The trick is to start writing.
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