BUILD YOUR JOB INTO YOUR LIFE, NOT YOUR LIFE INTO YOUR JOB

 The first and most important paradigm shift in our thinking is to change the way we view our purpose. We can no longer live our lives based on our careers. We must build our jobs into our lives instead of our lives into our jobs.

Most of us have begun thinking about our lives by thinking about our careers. Our job is the starting point for thinking about our life. We have defined our jobs, and then defined the other elements of our lives. When we were little kids we were asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” The more important question is “How will you be you when you grow up?”

For example, we have determined a career path and then thought about how much education it will require, and then thought about when we would get married, have children and begin to build our family lives. We even decide where we will live based on where our jobs take us.

We’re building our life into our job and we need to change this way of looking at things. Instead of defining all the elements in our lives by our jobs, we should first define our lives and then build all its various elements - our job, family, where we live, etc. - into that vision. We must think about our whole life as one where all the elements fit into a grand picture of who we are and where we are going.