By Daniela Serban, Trainer, Coach and HR Consultant, Mentor in SIM’s Community

By doing what you love, you will never feel like you are working.

Truth or Dare?

What do you choose?

TRUTH: Do you love your job? Is that what you dreamed of? Did you choose your studies based on what you loved to do? Do you feel that you wake up with enthusiasm in the morning because it is a new day where you do what you like best, what represents you, and where you wanted to be?

CHALLENGE: Do what you love to do the most, and do not give up on your dreams!

After the game and the play, I suggest you talk about vocation, about the profession we choose, about our occupation, about the love of doing things, or about doing something with passion.

No matter how old you are now, it is never too late to find your vocation, to find that activity that makes you vibrate and wake up enthusiastically in the morning because it is a new day when you can do what you love best and on top of that, be paid for it!

You may face indecision, disorientation, or misdirection due to well-intentioned advice from others around you, but which does not represent you, is not about who you are and what you want.

You may face the need for professional retraining due to external factors dictated by the current socio-economic context or once you become a mother. You feel the need to reinvent yourself and find something that goes hand in hand with this new role that has changed priorities, brought about profound changes in you, transformed you.

And the first thing I want you to remember, regardless of your age, 14, 18 or 40, vocation, chosen profession or simply, what do you want to become as a professional in life, so implicitly what you want to study until you get there, it is EXCLUSIVE ABOUT YOU! About no one else! It is about who you are because the vocation involves a series of passions, of your qualities, therefore of skills and talents that you have, not someone else. 

Those around us may advise us what is best for us and do so with the best intentions, and I have no doubt! It's just that each person is a unique individual, different even from his parents, with his own personality and preferences, with his own passions, skills, and talents!

So, everyone feels and thinks for themselves, so I invite you to feel and think for a moment, leaving aside everything that is said around you.

I, for example, have always wanted to work with people, to be among them, to add value to them, to help ... I didn't even know in high school what HR is, what a human resources department does in - a company or anyway, nothing but contracts and salaries. But when I started working in this field, still a student, and then I started studying human resources management in college, I even decided to prepare my thesis in this field. I felt the call, and I felt that I like to fulfill my need to be among people and work with them and for them. At the same time, I combined working with and for people with a passion for foreign languages, working in multicultural environments. I felt I could add value to what I was doing, which made me feel fulfilled! 

Only later I discovered Marc Winn's diagram with the Ikigai model that I will talk about later. This model came as a further confirmation of the choices I made intuitively when I finally decided to listen to myself and not those around me! Personal development came as a natural thing in my work in human resources. Still, I took a step in this direction when I went through a difficult period and felt on my skin the fantastic beneficial effects, and then a new chapter in my life has been opened.

Discover your calling!

I suggest you focus on the IKIGAI model, which is presented as a distribution of aspects in four areas. Each of these areas can have elements in common with the neighboring ones: passion, profession, vocation, and mission.

Now I invite you to an application exercise and take a sheet of paper to divide into four. You can use the model in the image, or you can draw four dials.

1.The things you love, what you like to do the most. The common elements between area 1 and area 2 form PASSION.

2.What I know how to do well, what I know how to do, what comes naturally to me, without too much effort. The common elements between area 2 and area 3 determine the PROFESSION.

3.Activities for which you can be paid. The common elements between area 3 and area 4 determine the VOCATION.

4.The things the world needs or how I can add value to others: It took me a while to find the answer to this question or find me: to support education, which is a good source of good in the world. Naturally, it would be best if you had more time for this question to be able to give yourself an answer. 

The common elements between area 4 and area 1 determine the MISSION.

Ideally, at least one activity of all these four areas should be common and should be found on each of them.

It was a small application exercise meant to bring you more clarity regarding what you like to do, what you know how to do, where to go, and how far you want to go.

Apply it and give us feedback.

Remember that it is NEVER too late to do what you love! 

(article first published in https://staredebineds.wixsite.com/empoweryourself/post/o-altfel-de-iubire)