What Do You Do? (Hint: Find Your Why)

This is a hard question to answer. Does this person want to know what I do for money right now? Or what I do on the side that isn’t making me any money now but I hope will in the future? What if I’m in between money-making gigs and baking cookies all day?

At many points in my life people have paid me to do things I hate because society isn’t advanced enough where I can barter my skills for food and wares. Other times I have been in-between jobs, temping, checking coats at hotels, or in grad school. I never liked how this question made me feel especially when I wasn’t doing work I was 100% passionate about.

A few years of ago I decided to take control of this question and instead of worrying about what the asker wanted I answered it the way I wanted. I began sharing my “why” and not my what. When you share you “why” (or your purpose) with someone you are really sharing who you are. And let’s be real this is far more interesting than what you do. Because if you’re like me what you do changes often and no one wants to hear your verbal resume.

How to figure out  your WHY? I did some self reflecting and mapped out my past jobs and roles. I went as far back as high school (barista before that was a word, clothing store cashier, and camp counselor) and up to the present writing down which aspects of each job I really loved. This was also difficult.

It's easy to remember things we hate because everyone loves a good “nightmare boss who blew pot smoke in my face” or “coworker who walked barefoot around the office” story (yes those are real stories). However by focusing on what I enjoyed at each job I saw clearly a common theme emerge:

EMPOWERMENT.

This theme showed up in different ways - teaching English as a second language, raising money for women’s non-profits in developing countries, training executives - but my role always had the same purpose: Helping people learn, grow, and lead to solve challenges on their own.

“What do you?”

“I empower people to be strong creative leaders.”

Understanding this about myself empowers me to answer this difficult question with a smart, authentic response that never changes no matter what I do. And as long as the work I do connects to my "why" I will feel energized.

So I ask you: What do you do?

--> Create an action plan to do what you love on June 8th. More info here.