In MoneyLove 3.0, I continue to emphasize the importance of knowing what you want, and describe the value of the old exercise from the Human Potential Movement where you sit opposite a partner and take turns asking, “What do you want?” over and over again, coming up with a different answer each time. After a few minutes of this, you unpeel the superficial layers and get to the core of what you really want.
I think similar value can come out of answering the question, “What do you do?” Many people have a pat answer for this question, as it is one of those most asked in any kind of social or business interaction. But is has always surprised me how many people really don’t know what they do in the world, and how it impacts, helps, comforts, or teaches other people.
If you prefer doing this on your own to finding a suitable partner for the exercise, just start with a list of 20 Questions, all the same, “What Do I Do?” and coming up with twenty different answers. It sounds easier than it may be for you in actual practice.
You may even surprise yourself with some of your answers, and/or they may reveal something you do that you were not really aware of doing. As I pondered writing this post, I did this for myself, and very quickly came up with a way of expressing what I do in the world that I had never stated before: “I teach people how to be happy about money.”
I love the declaration Marianne Cantwell, author of Be a Free Range Human, makes about what she does: “I teach people how to get paid for being themselves.”
This also involves becoming more self aware about what you do well in your life. What other people have praised you for and appreciated about you. The more this is incorporated in your answers to this core question, the more authentic you will be in what you offer to the world–and what you ask other people to give you money for doing.
It’s as simple as this: the more clear and certain you are about what you do, the better choices you’ll make in expanding your horizons. We can avoid choices that can take us out of alignment with what we do, and out of synch with our true purpose.
Jerry
