Are you wondering “how can I find the perfect job for me?” Centuries ago, one apprenticed at an early age to learn from a master craftsman experienced in a particular field. It took years, often decades before one was considered even moderately skilled. Michelangelo was apprenticed at age 13. But what if he had hated drawing and learned it only because it was his duty, his job?

Each of us is capable of learning a skill given enough time, one which we can repeat as needed. But does the work tempt you, lure you to return in the small hours of the night? Are you drawn to it like a moth to the flame, enticed by what could be? Michelangelo surely was, for to infuse paint with the raw power to inspire and awe mankind for centuries to come did not come because he learned the basic skills of wielding a paintbrush.

The point here is not necessarily to ignore skills you may have developed but to set them aside for the moment and try to recognize where your heart wants to lead you. Don’t change jobs simply because you’re good at some skill. That’s not how to answer the question, “What’s the perfect job for me?”

Skills are what the past has created. They are merely ways to get from point A to point B. I’ve seen that skills by themselves won’t make you happy. Actually, it’s the one thing that can keep a person blocked from what they love because skills protect you from knowing what you would want and love to do. When you find that work which you truly love, you will discover the gifts hidden within you.

My recommendation here is to take some time to examine what your heart desires. If you suddenly lost the ability to perform the skills you currently perform or take pride in, what else would you do? Whether that is sailing, raising dogs, creating a new recipe or painting a picture, listen for the tiny whispered messages that your heart reveals. This is where your soul resides. Anne Frank said, “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”

Christopher Reeve went from playing Superman to being one. He became a driving force for research in spinal cord injuries after his life-changing accident. If you were suddenly transported to a life in which everything you take for granted was gone, what would you do? Where does your heart lead you?

I found Joel to be extremely energetic and personable, caring deeply for the success of his clients. Inquisitive and detailed oriented, Joel leaves nothing to chance, asking probing questions to guide his clients to explore concepts they would have not thought of or addressed on their own. I personally have gain a great deal through my interaction with Joel and I am certain others will do so as well.

Adam Kaplan

Many of my clients are probably like you. They are desperately looking for meaning in their work. They’ve learned that to find a career coach can be the first step in their journey.

Contrary to popular belief, the reason for holding down a job isn’t to benefit from perks such as a positive “around the water cooler” atmosphere, mutually amicable co-workers, great benefits or even collecting a paycheck, but rather fulfilling your own definition of personal meaning through your work.

So, what is the textbook definition of personal meaning, you ask? Some of my clients are under the impression that it is a philosophy toward your chosen profession that you feel deeply in your heart. Others have further elaborated that personal meaning is a state-of-mind that makes your job more purposeful for you.

Short and sweet, I believe the best definition of personal meaning is “my job touches me as I touch it.” For example, as I coach others, I feel a great sense of fulfillment in the moment because I am being touched by something that my client does to better themselves because of an insight I shared with them that spurs them on to transformation or personal growth.

To further illustrate my definition, I’ll relay the following story. A man came upon two workers breaking granite so he stopped to ask them, “What are you doing?” The first one sarcastically replied, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to break this granite. While on the positive side, the second worker enthusiastically responded, “I’m part of a team of people who are building a beautiful cathedral.”

The morale of this concise parable is simple. We enjoy our working lives to the level we realize how important the work we are doing actually is to the big picture. While your job might be interesting, engaging and purposeful, the question to ask yourself is, “Does it bring personal meaning to who I am?” Personal meaning to one person could mean impacting the universe, or to another, quietly helping others behind the scenes.

When you find a career coach, it can help you answer this question, “What work would you do if it brought personal meaning to you?” In order to answer this question, you need to get a clear fix on the definition of what personal meaning means to you. This is the starting point I recommend each of us search from because until we come to love our jobs, nothing can make working a satisfying way of living.

Are you in a career that doesn’t fully satisfy you? Do you want to make a change to a new career or make changes to the one you are currently in? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please read on.

Sorry, there is no one perfect job. But there are numerous jobs that can provide you with passion, excitement, good pay, appreciation and inspiration. Most people I speak to about career transition simply do not believe careers exist with these qualities. Even the ones who do believe in the existence of such dream jobs don’t have the courage to make the necessary changes in their life to land such a job.

The most important element in bringing fulfillment to your career is your imagination. Successful people first envision desired outcomes and as a result they are not surprised by their achievements because they were already faultlessly executed through the power of imagination.

Still don’t believe, then ask golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. In his book Golf My Way, Nicklaus revealed the secret behind his own personal imaging technique, “First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I see the ball going there: it’s path, trajectory, shape and even its behavior on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade-out and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous image into reality.”

Perhaps the greatest giant in the realm of imagination that the world will ever know is Walt Disney. On Saturdays, the creator of Mickey Mouse took his daughters to a local park to ride the merry go around. While sitting on the bench eating snacks and watching his children enjoy their rides on the carousel, Disney imagined an elaborate family filled amusement park based around the characters he created, putting every minute detail into the place inside the safe haven of his intellect. From the pirates of the Caribbean to Main Street USA, Disneyland is the miraculous result of Disney’s ability to implement the future in his mind. With no preceding examples to draw inspiration from this pioneer of family entertainment relied on his imagination to generate the original blueprint that is still being copied and improved upon around the world.

Just like Nicklaus and Disney, you too can imagine what is possible. Imagine what can be achieved. Imagine all that is available for you and your success. This is how you find the perfect job.

Most people have difficulty thinking outside the box they live in and, thus they stay where they are. I encourage you to go beyond what you know or anything else limiting you. Use your imagination to take you where you want to go. Let it be your guide toward your future. This is the first step–imagining that something different is possible.

Don’t sell yourself short by thinking of how you can’t do something, like the storybook “little engine that could” Think How You Can! That’s how to find the perfect job. The basic imagination framework for success boils down to three simple steps:

1. First comes, the thought.
2. Then, organization of that thought into ideas and plans.
3. Finally, transferring those plans from the “drawing board of your mind” into reality.

But, no matter what you do or how you eventually get the job done, the starting point is always your imagination. When keep an open mind and allow yourself to be drawn to toward what you imagine or even your wildest dreams, you’ll find that something missing in your career.

Wondering how to find your dream career? The following five suggestions will help to place your passion at the helm and allow it to guide your expertise, creating more fulfillment with less burnout . And you may discover your dream career is the one you already have!

1. Expand what you love.

Identify the most enjoyable activities or projects of your job and fully incorporate them into your daily responsibilities.

2. Prioritize your most important activities.

Work smarter, not harder.

3. Create a professional support team.

Ask a helpful co-worker, an inspiring mentor, a member of management, and a bright junior employee to be a part of your team.

4. Stay engaged and avoid stagnation.

Discover and explore lateral opportunities within your company or position.

5. Don’t wait for the annual review to receive feedback.

Ask for positive feedback and recognition from your employer, colleagues, or supervisors. In addition to telling you how you’re doing, a good boss will be able to give you positive steps to take to be on track for your next promotion or raise.

Very quickly, Joel was able to help me understand that my passion for work stems from engaging in work that lets me utilize my natural gifts. To discover those gifts, Joel coached me to look back to my childhood to discover the activities that I found enjoyable and that I was naturally good at, and to extrapolate from those activities the characteristics I would likely find in my dream job. He therefore very quickly helped me get unstuck and start my journey toward my dream job.

Michelle Abrams

L.L. Bean absolutely loved hunting and fishing, but absolutely loathed trudging home from the chilling, wet woods of Maine in foot-soaking leather boots. Rather than giving up on his love for outdoor sports due to cold feet, he set out to do find a solution. In the process, he created a life-fulfilling career and one of the most lucrative retail businesses in American history.

In 1911, Bean asked a local cobbler to sew together a rugged leather upper and a rubber bottom from an ordinary pair of galoshes to develop the prototype for the waterproof Maine Hunting Shoe. Less than a century later, this innovative product, inspired by one man’s passionate interest in outdoor recreation, represents the “first step” for what has become an internationally-known mail order outdoor apparel and equipment business with annual sales in excess of $1.4 billion.

Just like L.L. Bean, you, too, have interests that if properly channeled can be the beginning spark to ignite your inner passion to light the way to your dream career. In other words, what you find the most interesting can lead to personal enrichment and self fulfillment in your own life.

Interests are those things that grab your attention ever so gently without you even noticing. Think about those occasions when you find yourself speaking to friends for hours on end about subjects you find fascinating or times when performing a specific task was so enjoyable that it became effortless. And pay close attention to the activities that enable you to feel a sense of completion because you are tapping into your own unique gifts and expressing them fully.

When trying to find the right job for you – a job you’d love to do – the easiest place to begin is to ask yourself: “What interests me?” Behind the insight of your interests lies the clarity of what would bring you fulfillment.

It is extremely important that you don’t look at what you should do or what gives you that adrenalin rush. Focus instead on those times when you’ve been drawn to something, possibly without understanding why or when you are talking with someone about a particular subject and feeling really comfortable about it.

Another way to narrow your interests is to take an inventory of what you look forward to doing in your free time. When you have an opportunity to do whatever you want, whether after work or on weekends, consider those activities that keep drawing you in.

Don’t fall into the mind trap of thinking about how you would make a sustainable living from doing something you enjoy. Just allow yourself the intellectual freedom to consider all the possibilities surrounding your interests.

An effective way to complete this exercise so you can find the right job for you is to imagine that you only are allowed to discuss three subjects this year. What would they be and why? Another great strategy is to keep track of the topics that pique your interest when reading the newspaper, looking at magazine articles, watching TV, perusing your local bookstore, or surfing the Internet.

No matter where you uncover your greatest interest, finding your dream job is a process that probably won’t happen overnight or by doing one or more specific things. More often than not, it involves many steps, all building off one another to bring you closer and closer to the prize you’ve been searching for.

Joel has created a systematic way to discover and find the work that fully resonates with your truest passion. He is passionate about his work, and is wholeheartedly committed to and completely enlivened by the opportunity for others to work with their own passions, talents and gifts. Joel was on of the best investments I’ve ever made in myself and my life.

Brett Penfil, Organization Consultant,Blue Shield of California

What motivating factor would bring an increased sense of passion to your “field” of interest? This is especially helpful when considering career changes mid life. Take a look at what specifically fuels your passion while you are on the job. This allows you to focus on the tasks. Don’t get caught up in your job’s name or title or even the field. Zero in on the tasks. It’s irrelevant what you call it, the formula for success remains the same:

FULFILLMENT (OF TASKS) + PASSION (FOR WORK) = THE DREAM JOB OF YOUR LIFETIME

Although this equation shouldn’t be as difficult as algebra for non-mathematicians, in order to apply it to our actual lives it is first necessary to understand the individual components:

FULFILLMENT (OF TASKS)

First, ask yourself what are the required day-to-day activities that are involved with getting a particular job done? Next, focus on the tasks you enjoy deeply (e.g. empowering people, being creative, interacting and communicating with people, problem solving, making or assembling parts, researching new possibilities, etc.).

Try to remember events or times in which you had thoughts like, I love doing this or I wish I could do this all day. You might even identify occasions where you were unaware of the passing of time or when life felt absolutely amazing to you. Within these thoughts are the tasks that provide the spark to ignite the next part of the equation:

PASSION (FOR WORK)

By completing the first part of the equation you’ve become clear on essential elements that bring fulfillment to your professional life. Now let’s take this information one step further and transform it into the passion that will put the icing on the cake for your working life.

At its most fundamental level, passion is your excitement towards doing a particular type of work. However no matter what type of work you have a passion for, (care giving, working for a design firm, conservationist, trainer, educator, writer or counselor), you will ultimately confront barriers and challenges along the way as you continue the journey to create your own personal “field of dreams.”

The key to reducing your fear of these barriers and changes is by taking the time to be aware of what motivates you and what action steps you can take to bring them into your work. To conquer the fear of challenges, start volunteering for new projects. To reach the next level of personal growth, take seminars on a new interest. To gain a greater sense of achievement, work on smaller projects so you can see positive results more often. Most importantly, never lose focus of what excites you because only these motivating factors can fuel your passion for the work you truly enjoy.

No matter what company you work for or responsibilities you must complete, the outcome is equally as important as the task. Life isn’t boring, work isn’t meaningless, and co-worker relationships aren’t valueless as along as we enjoy what we do. Whatever amount of passion you invest in these opportunities will largely determine the level of fulfillment that is returned to you.

It is absurd to think that one seminar, book or individual (myself included) can have an immediate and permanent effect on the rest of your life. Just like the pooper-scooper, you can generate passion for your job on a daily basis with or without the assistance of others by following one simple equation. If you are making career changes in mid life, you want to follow this equation FULFILLMENT (OF TASKS) + PASSION (FOR WORK) = THE DREAM JOB OF YOUR LIFETIME