There are more than 100,000 different jobs and job categories in the United States alone. There are an unlimited number of things that you can do to earn a good living and to achieve financial independence. You must therefore develop the habit of thinking about the work that you would most love to do. Instead of accepting whatever job or position comes along, you should be continually thinking about your ideal job, exactly as if you could design it personally in every respect. The highest paid and most successful people in our society do what they love to do, as much of the time as they possibly can. You should continually be standing back, examining yourself objectively, and then practicing the habit of focusing on your special talents and abilities. Each person is born with the ability to do one or more things in an exceptional fashion. Just as you have multiple intelligences, you have multiple abilities as well. You will only really be happy and successful when you find the kind of work that taps into the unique talents you have today, or which you can develop tomorrow.
Dr. Victor Frankl, the founder of Logotherapy, wrote that there are four types of jobs that you can do.
The first of these jobs are hard to learn and hard to do. This type of work would include a task like accounting or bookkeeping for a person who has no natural skill in that area. It would be hard to learn, and no matter how many years you did it, it would be hard to do. Many people find themselves in jobs or careers where they are mismatched in terms of their natural abilities and what the job requires. Their work is always hard and seldom satisfying. Don’t let this happen to you.
The second type of job that Frankl identified was a job that was hard to learn but easy to do. This may be a skill like typing with a keyboard or flying an airplane. It takes tremendous dedication and concentration to learn, but once you have mastered it, it is quite easy to do, hour after hour. Unfortunately, this type of job can become boring and unchallenging over time. It seldom causes you to stretch your capabilities and grow your talents.
The third type of job you might find yourself in is a job that easy to learn but hard to do. Physical labor falls into this category, like digging a ditch. It’s easy to learn to do a physically difficult job, but it is always hard to do, no matter how long you do it. Think about chopping wood!
The fourth job category, and the most important, are those things that you find easy to learn and easy to do. You learned it so easily, and do it so naturally, that you almost forget when and how you learned it in the first place. As you can imagine, the jobs and tasks that are easy to learn and easy to do are the best indicators of your natural talents and abilities. This is where you are the most likely to do the best job, get the best results, and to be paid the very most. Throughout your life and career, you must be continually analyzing your activities to identify the things that you learn and do easily, and from which you get the best results and rewards. This type of work for you is the key to career success.
