How to Find Your True Calling

By Brian Tracy

Your success in life will be largely determined by your ability to find your true calling, the right work for you to do, and then putting your whole heart into doing it very well.

The happiest people are those who have carefully thought through who they are, what they want, where they are going, and then decided exactly what they need to do to get to their goal. Asking yourself five targeted questions can help you home in on whatever path is right for you.

#1: What do I do easily and well?

When you are seeking your true calling, you must look at the activities that have always been easy for you but which have been difficult for others. Often, you will get comments and compliments on how well you do a particular task. You will be surprised when you hear those remarks, because you never even thought about it that much. It just seemed natural for you from the very beginning.

My daughter is a natural and spontaneous little actress. From the time she was three or four years old, she has memorized lines and acted in every school play and function that has ever come up. In fact, by the time she was six, she was memorizing every line in the school play, not only her own but the lines of every other child. When the other children forgot their lines, Christina would whisper them and keep the play on track.

When Christina was 11 years old, she appeared at a city council meeting and gave a speech in favor of a permit allowing her school to expand. She stood up at the meeting, on a chair, in front of 150 adults, and gave an impassioned little talk. As a result, the permit was granted – and Christina was on the front page of two newspapers the following day.

#2: What are the things that I have done in life that have been most responsible for my success?

In looking back over your work and your activities, what are the things you have done that have given you the greatest rewards and satisfaction? If you work for a company, what are the activities you have engaged in that have achieved the very best results for yourself and your company? Your previous success experiences are signposts pointing to the sort of things that you should be doing more and more of if you want to deploy yourself more fully for greater happiness and satisfaction in life.

#3: What would I do differently, knowing what I know now?

Is there anything that you are currently doing that you wouldn’t start up again if you had to do it over? Is there any relationship that you are in that you wouldn’t get into if you could make the choice today? Is there any job or part of any job that you are doing that you would not embark upon, knowing what you now know, if you had to do it over?

As many as 95 percent of people working today are under-employed, not working to their full capacity for themselves and their companies. Only 5 percent, when interviewed, will say that they are working fully extended at their current job. Only 5 percent feel that their entire potential is being consumed and that they are working on the outer edge of their abilities. These people also tend to be the happiest, the highest paid, and the most fulfilled in any organization or enterprise.

#4: What work would I choose to do if I won a million dollars, cash, in the lottery tomorrow?

This is a question I sometimes ask my seminar audiences. When you hear this question, your gut reaction is a good indicator of where you are today and possibly where you should be going in the future. Most people, when they think of winning a million dollars, think of quitting their current job and doing something else. There is nothing wrong with that. Since most people have backed into their current jobs, taking them because they just happened to be there at the time a job was needed, most people probably should be doing something else.

Napoleon Hill once said the key to success in America is to find out what you really enjoy doing, and then find a way to make a good living at it. What do you most love to do?

Successful people don’t feel like they work at all. They are doing what they love to do, and they are so busy doing it that their work becomes their play. Their work life and their personal life blends together like a hand fitting neatly into a glove. There is no separation. They are totally committed individuals who are accomplishing far more in a shorter period of time than the average person who is merely going through the motions.

#5: If I were absolutely guaranteed tremendous success in any job I chose, what field would I go into?

One of the major reasons people hold themselves back from doing what they are truly meant to do is that they are afraid they will fail in some way. And being afraid that you will fail is the surest guarantor that you will fail.

But what if you are absolutely guaranteed success in any field you choose? What would it be? What would you want to do if you had unlimited time, unlimited resources, and guaranteed success?

The answer to that question should cause you to tingle a little bit. It should make your stomach flutter. It should send a thrill of excitement and anticipation through you that tells you this is the job you should be doing.

Asking and answering the above five questions can change your life.

You have within you talents and abilities so vast that you could never use them all if you lived to be a thousand. You have natural skills and talents that can enable you to overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal you could ever set for yourself. There are no limits on what you can be, have, or do if you find your true calling.

When you become one of the few people who are doing what they love to do, who are totally absorbed in doing something they really care about, you will make more progress in a couple of years than the average wage slave makes in five or 10 years. You will come to the attention of people who can help you and open doors for you. You will be happy and fulfilled in both your work and your personal relationships. You will have more energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. You will unlock your true potential, and your future will become unlimited.

 find out about Brian Tracy and his expertise here.

DEMYSTIFYING DIGITAL | Advantages of online marketing

Tony Ahn, M.Ed., Special to InterAksyon.com

Let us try to unravel the mysteries of Internet marketing and digital public relations, one thread at a time.

The first question that should be answered is: What is the difference between the words online/internet/digital? Is online marketing different from Internet marketing or digital marketing? The answer is no. “Online” and “Internet” tend to be the terms used more by the general public (as evidenced in the number of Google searches for them), and “digital” is the term more commonly used by the marketing/PR industry itself. They are generally interchangeable. Mystery #1 solved.

A second question that should be addressed is:  What is the difference between digital marketing and digital public relations? Digital marketing generally aims to influence a buying decision through the Internet (whether or not the product is sold online), while public relations generally aims to influence perception (if you noticed that those two things can overlap, you’re right). These basic definitions do not change online, although they do have a host of disciplines and tools under them.

One nice thing about digital PR and marketing is that it is easier to measure impact (and thus return on investment) than with traditional marketing. For example, it’s hard to measure how many people see a billboard, and how many who do see it actually buy the product advertised. That’s easier to measure online. We can count how many people open an email, click a link, or visit a website. There are even ways to tell how many of those who do so actually visit a store.

It is also easier to target a particular group of people with digital rather than traditional techniques. If traditional marketing is a flashlight, digital marketing is a laser beam. With Facebook advertising, for example, I can specify not only basic demographic parameters (like 20 to 30, female, in Metro Manila), but even interests, or specific likes. For example, I can target everyone who has liked my competitor’s brand for a special offer.

There are two primary barriers for most companies to get into digital marketing or PR. The first is scepticism with technology they’ve never used. Traditional marketing always delivered before! That may be true, but Encyclopedia Britannica, Life Magazine, and Reader’s Digest were in print before, and they aren’t now. I guess tradition didn’t save them. The Internet used to only be accessed on a bulky desktop computer, but that tradition is fading so fast, that within our lifetimes the desktop computer may not exist at all. The world is continuing to change, and what is traditional will not always be the right choice. It will also not always be the wrong choice. Traditional media relations for example, will continue to be relevant as media is online.

Social media
The practical advice for this week answers the question: Does my company need a social media policy?

Social media policies are designed to let employees know what is expected of them in regards to their personal social media accounts. There are many questions to consider when developing a social media policy. For example, what if someone identifies that they work for your company on their Twitter account, and then engage in abusive or hateful speech? Even if they are not talking about their work or to another employee, it may still reflect poorly on the company. And that’s just the beginning: Is it okay to mention work-related things on Facebook? How about the company name? If okay to talk about the company, what is considered acceptable and unacceptable?

Some people might say that it’s better to be conservative and restrict employee communications on social media so as to protect the company. There’s a problem with this approach, though: today, the Internet and social media have democratized information sharing. Individuals have more power to spread a message than they ever have before. If your social media policy is restrictive, they may post something anonymous, create a parody Twitter account, or leak secrets. You can’t regulate someone posting anonymously, so providing for some freedom of expression may keep people from feeling that “going rogue” is their only recourse.

Similarly, I hear businesses all the time say “We want to have a Facebook page for our brand, but what if someone will write something bad on it?” I have two reactions: (1) If someone wants to write something critical of your organization, your lack of a Facebook page is not going to stop them. They’ll just find another place to complain, and you may not have any opportunity to respond. (2) In industries with high levels of complaints (such as telcos and Internet providers), creating a separate customer care page will give complainants an arena to voice their concerns - and it won’t be the same arena you’re announcing new products and holding promotions in.

Want something digital demystified? Send your questions to the author at tony@tonyahn.com.

(Tony Ahn is chief digital architect for Tony Ahn & Co., a full-service public relations, digital marketing, and reputation management agency based in Manila. He has written on the subject of Internet marketing and digital public relations for Social Media Examiner, Convince & Convert, and is formerly a featured blogger for Social Media Today.)