From the course: How to Find the Work You Love

Three keys to happiness

From the course: How to Find the Work You Love

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Three keys to happiness

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You've probably heard some traditional career advice that told you everyone is different and we all want different things. Well, it's true that each individual has a unique set of skills and interests and that our backgrounds and contexts are naturally different. But do we all truly want different things? Maybe it's not so complicated. For the most part, we all want to find a career that meets the same few specific needs. Despite our differences, most of us want a balanced life full of work that brings happiness and prosperity. As much as possible we want to do something we enjoy. We want to put our skills to good use. And ideally, we don't want to face a false choice between love or money. We'd like to do what we love and be well compensated for it. So put simply, here's what we're looking for. We want something that makes us happy, We can call that joy. Something that's financially viable, money. And something that maximizes our unique skills, flow. So remember our goal of this course, to help you win the career lottery and find the work you were meant to do. There's more than one path to this ideal world, but without each of these characteristics being met, you won't have a perfect match. It is entirely possible to do something you love that doesn't pay well. It's also possible to get paid well for something you dislike or something you just tolerate. There are lots of people out there who forge a compromise over putting up with a bad situation in exchange for a good paycheck. Finally, it's also possible to enjoy what you do or get paid well for it, or both. But to still lack that sense of all encompassing flow, where the hours pass like minutes because you're so completely in the zone of doing something you're really good at. None of those situations is what you want though. To find the work you were born to do, you need the right combination of joy, money and flow. So your task is to begin thinking about this model as you make decisions. What will get you closer to the trifecta? That perfect convergence point where everything feels aligned. As you'll see, even small steps can go a long way toward finding that point of alignment.

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