Author: Stephen R. Covey
_Stephen R. Covey_
Reading time: 18 minutes
Synopsis
Your Job – Your Passion (2025) shows how to leave the ‘rat race’ and start creating your own path. Learn about your strengths, find a guide, and take brave steps to create your dream job.
What this book offers you: Find your dream job and learn how to get it.
How do you feel on Sunday evening? Are you excited for the new work week? Or do you just want to stay in bed? If thinking about your job makes you unhappy, it might be time for a change. When your job is also your passion, you will surely jump out of bed on Monday mornings. But first, you need to find out what ‘feeling good’ and ‘being successful’ mean to you. You also need to know what you are truly passionate about.
The most important thing is that you can be yourself at work. If you have to pretend to be someone else for your job, you will not be happy. Your life, your true self, and your work should fit together. Only then can you give your best. You will also find success that pays your bills. We will look at how to do this in the next parts.
Blink 1 – Getting Started: Jochen Mai’s Five Career Lessons
We begin with a person who has already reached his goal. Jochen Mai loves all his work. He runs the job blog Karrierebibel.de. He is also a successful author, speaker, and teacher. He became famous for his TV show Job Switch – zum Glück gekündigt. Here are his five lessons for anyone who wants to be happy at work:
- Don’t be afraid of side roads. Most people who truly love their job did not take a straight path from school to get there. Be brave and try different things to find your goal!
- Think big. If you aim for great things, you will achieve great things. So, do not be too modest. It is time to break down the limits in your mind!
- Stay flexible and be with people who see your worth. Did you lose your job? Don’t let it upset you. Instead, see it as a chance to stop and choose a new path!
- Create your dream job yourself. It is very rare that a normal job lets you use all your special skills and do what you love. If you work for yourself or start a business, you decide how you spend your days.
- Never stop learning. You never stop growing. Today’s working world changes very fast, so everyone must keep learning new things. But this is not a problem. It is a chance! You can decide what new things you want to learn.
Jochen Mai learned these lessons from his own life. He was also fired from a job once. He faced not only losing his career but also deep questions: Can I do this? Am I good enough for work? Will anyone want to hire me?
Today, he no longer asks these questions. Instead, he follows the words of the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: ‘You can only understand life when you look back. But you must live it going forward.’ This means that even big problems often have a reason later on. They can bring you closer to happiness. So, do not give up if things are difficult right now. You never know what good might come from it.
Blink 2 – The Basis: Three Career Questions That Help You Get Clear.
Most people who are truly happy at work can quickly answer three questions: What? How? And Why? Let’s look closely at these basic ideas for a successful career.
- The What? Ask yourself what exactly you can do to make a special contribution. Try to use your talents, your passions, and your life experience.
- The How? This is about your style. How do you work? How do you treat other people? Do you take responsibility? Do you follow your values? No one needs to be perfect. But being real and honest is important. If you know your values and live by them, others will trust and respect you quickly. This is more important than a fancy job title or a big salary.
- The Why? This question is about the deeper meaning of your work. How do you make society better, or even the world? For whom do you make life nicer or easier? To ‘feel good’ is not just about helping yourself. It also means giving back to others and making a difference.
Fiona Wood, a surgeon from Britain and Australia, has answered all three questions for herself. She first wanted to be a sports teacher because she loved sports. But then she understood she wanted to help people in another way. So, she chose to study medicine. Later, she worked with many burn victims in a hospital. She learned that healing must start quickly to reduce scars. So, she created ‘spray-on skin.’ This puts skin cells directly onto the burn. She won many awards for helping victims of terror attacks. But this is not what truly motivates her. She found a way to greatly improve other people’s lives. This is more important than any award or a good salary.
Blink 3 – Where to Start: Create Your Strengths Portfolio.
Many people are unhappy in their jobs. This is often because they always have to do things they are not good at. They rarely get to use their real strengths. It is like driving a car with the handbrake on. It is tiring and frustrating. Over time, it can cause many problems.
Peter Drucker, a famous thinker about modern business, once said this. He believed that successful people know their strengths, their values, and how they like to work. This is even more true today. Industries, jobs, and technology change very fast now. Only people who truly know themselves and their place can stay strong against all these changes.
To build this strong base, you need to be clear about three things: your talents, your passion, and your values and principles.
- Talents. Everyone has a mix of talents. This mix is as special as a fingerprint. If you are not sure what you are good at, think about what friends or co-workers often ask you for help with. Maybe it is making sense of messy things? Or explaining ideas clearly? Or solving problems between people? Talents can also be simple things. For example, nice handwriting, a good eye for details, or being good at decorating. We are born with talents. Skills, however, we learn. So, when you use your talents, you are truly yourself.
- Passions. You can have a work life without passion, but it will feel quite empty. Passions are like a fire inside you that pushes you forward. If you have ever been truly excited about a project, you know this feeling. Sadly, many people do not know their passions. Maybe they never found them, or they lost them after years in a boring job. If you want to find your passions again, think back. What did you love doing as a child? Did you climb trees? Draw small fantasy animals? Or spend all day reading books? Our hobbies often hide the passions that can also be important for our work life. People who loved books as children might be great researchers or journalists today. Those who climbed trees might now be happy as sports teachers or physical therapists. So, what are your true but forgotten passions?
- Values and Principles. These decide where you can work in a way that feels right. So, they are part of your strengths. If you do not know your values, or if you act against them, you will always make things hard for yourself. For example, if you believe in honesty but your marketing job makes you tell customers untrue things, you will not be happy in the long run. When you act against your own values, you have to pretend. You lose who you truly are. It is best to write down all the values and principles that are important to you. If you are not sure, always listen to your inner voice. Do not just follow the money.
Your talents, passions, values, and principles together make up your Strengths Portfolio. Take paper and a pen. Give yourself enough time. Write down everything you can think of for these three areas. What activities give you energy? When was the last time you were completely focused on a task? What podcasts do you listen to in your free time? Who are your role models, and why? The answers to these questions will help you understand what belongs in your Strengths Portfolio.
Blink 4 – Choosing Your Path: Create a Vision for Your Dream Job.
Your Strengths Portfolio shows what you can offer. Now, let’s look at the other side: Where do you want to go? The best way to find the answer is to create a vision. Start with a simple question: What do you want to see when you look back at your career when you are old? You will spend much of your life working. So, take enough time to plan your vision. It should be like a guiding star for you. It will show you the way when you have hard choices. You can make it any way you like: a list, a poem, a short story, or a song. The main thing is that it inspires you.
The great thing about a vision is that it helps you change how you see things. A normal CV or resume focuses on you. This can make you seem like a product you need to sell. But a vision changes this view. It shows not who you are, but what solution you provide. This makes you more useful to possible employers.
Think of your skills as a tool to make changes. Change what you have power over. This is true not only when you look for a job. It also helps if you are already in a job. Stop seeing yourself as a victim of the system or your situation. Take action instead.
Madeleine is a great example of true spirit. She became the director of a school in a difficult part of the USA. The school was in a sad state. Walls were broken, children came to class hungry and dirty, and many teachers felt tired or had given up. Madeleine’s first act was to clean the toilets herself. Next, she found people to help paint the classrooms. Then she had her most special idea. She collected money and got a washing machine and a dryer. Many children came to school in dirty clothes. When children feel bad, they cannot focus. So Madeleine got clothes from donations. She asked the caretaker to wash the children’s dirty clothes. They came to school dirty and went home clean. But the best part was this: From then on, the children not only wore clean clothes. They also knew that someone believed in them and cared for them.
Do what Madeleine did. Find chances where others only see problems. Do not wait for someone to ask you. Fix bad situations, even if it is not your job. Your vision will guide you. It will also remind you of the passions that drive you.
By the way, Madeleine’s vision is: ‘I make sure my school is a safe place where everyone feels good. Every child deserves to learn, to be respected, and to have a good future, no matter where they come from.’
Now it is your turn. What will your vision be like? If it is hard to put your vision into words, talk to friends or co-workers. They often see what truly drives you and where you fit best. And take your time! Your vision should guide you like a GPS through your whole work life. It needs your full attention and honesty. You can also think about your role models. What do you admire about them? What would you like to learn from them? And how can you mix this with your Strengths Portfolio?
Blink 5 – Your Way of Thinking: Grow Your Area of Influence.
With your Strengths Portfolio and your vision, you are ready to find your perfect job. Or you can create it yourself. Well, almost… What you still need is the right way of thinking. Start to think like a ‘doer’. Do not see yourself as a victim of your situation. See yourself as someone who can create things!
The perfect chance is not coming your way? Do not wait. Make it happen yourself! Think about Steven Spielberg. When he first went to Universal Studios, he was a teenager. He had no work history, no experience, not even a high school diploma. But he wanted to be part of the film world very much. He was ready to do anything. So, he kept trying until someone offered him a helper’s job without pay. Spielberg happily took it. He gave his all and slowly moved up. The rest is film history.
You see: Even if your area of influence is small, you can always do something! With strong will and effort, you can grow it bit by bit. You can do this until you have enough space to create your dream job yourself. These tips will help you:
Tip Number 1: Keep learning. We said it before: You never stop learning. Have you found a problem you want to fix? Is there a task that really interests you? Then learn all you can. Read books about it. Watch films or shows. Maybe your local university has a class about it. You could join it to listen and learn.
Tip Number 2: Build a support team. Look for people who know a lot about this area. Talk to experts. Find others who think like you. You can connect with them and work together. You might even find a mentor. This person can share their experience and knowledge and help you on your path.
Tip Number 3: Speak the language of leaders. If you want to move up in a company, or if companies are your clients, you must speak their language. Show clear numbers, totals, and percentages. Make easy-to-understand charts. Use exact studies and predictions. This will make you seem professional. It also shows what you can do for the company.
So, what project excites you? What do you want to make better? And what is one first step you can take right now?
Conclusion
If you put all these parts together – your Strengths Portfolio, your vision, and a ‘doer’ mindset – you will build a strong base for any work change. Finding work that makes you happy is not a straight road. It is more like a winding path. You will try new things, sometimes fail, change your direction, and take small, brave steps. But this is also a great chance. You do not need to know today what your ‘perfect job’ looks like. You just need to start asking the right questions. And you must be ready to take your answers seriously.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/dein-beruf-deine-leidenschaft-de