Do What You Enjoy

Yesterday we looked at what the phrase 'Your Gift is your Wealth' really means. I said that I would go through exactly what I did to develop this in my own life so that it might inspire you that it is possible for any one to do.

Part 2

Before you quit your Job

Before you quit your current full time job, carefully consider what it is that ignites your interest and zeal. What is your passion? What do others say that you are good at? What do you absolutely love to do? Once you discover the answer to these questions then you will know what area of your life you can turn into a stream of passive income. I'm sure that you would agree that it is a LOT of fun getting paid to do what you love to do. Let me give you a couple of examples :

1. I live in a small rural town so jobs here are quite limited. Try as I might, I couldn't get work when I first moved here so I looked at what I enjoyed doing. I loved to clean - so I started my own cleaning business and loved it! In just a few short months it had grown amazingly and that business allowed me to save enough money to achieve at least one of my dreams in life, which was to travel to Israel. I used to watch and read everything about the place that I could get my hands on - all from the comfort of my armchair. But the beauty was that I was getting paid to do something I loved to do - I went to Israel and included Egypt, Greece and Cyprus as well!

2. Over the years I learned piano and worked through all my grades and I loved to sit for hours playing - so I used it to develop another stream of income which was teaching piano and theory lessons. I really enjoyed seeing people learning to play and enjoying it like I did.

3. When I no longer enjoyed doing these things as much, I stopped them and moved onto other things. I love to make all my own curry powders, spice rubs, spice mixes, and gluten free mixes and I have a rather long list of people who ask me for them - (including my own grown up children). I developed this as another stream of income by packaging them and selling them at markets and even though I no longer go to markets I still have some regulars who call me and ask me for more.

Sit down with a pen and paper and list the things that you know you are good at, and that people have commended you for. Then taking most of those into consideration, look at how you might be able to put all that together to form a product or service.

I began editing for people (many pro bono) and I began writing some books and regular articles for a magazine in Sydney. I also wanted to improve my skills further, so I enrolled in a certificate IV of Professional Writing, Editing and Publishing - completing it within a year. I loved it and wanted more so went on to complete my Diploma as well. I spoke to lots of different groups that asked me to come and speak including Probus, U3A, Senior Citizens, Local History Groups, Church Groups, and others.

I self published two books which were both training and self-help tools and I completed a book of local history. I also began to take on ghost writing jobs for various people. From there I wrote and edited my own curriculum to teach writing classes in my town twice a week and this has now tripled in size and continues to evolve and develop as we go. The interesting thing though is that it is all fun, and isn't really difficult because I love what I do and I am highly motivated to do it because I enjoy it so much.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and to hear about what you might consider doing with what you are good at. Feel free to ask any questions or to leave some feedback. In the next post, we will look at how to market what you do and what you offer.