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The Ultimate Guide to Finding Your Life’s Work
Most people go through life believing tomorrow will be the day they wake up and everything changes. They’ll figure out why they’re here and step into a life of meaning and purpose.
But then tomorrow comes and goes just like the days before it.
This is a guide to breaking that cycle and finding your life’s work.
Before you read any further – for this guide to be of any use – you must accept the following:
You have a unique mix of skills and interests that you can combine and leverage in a way that only you are capable of.
Different philosophies and schools of thought have different ways of saying the same things across history.
The Hindu are in search of their Dharma, what they believe is the souls’ purpose.
Christianity believes in vocation – a divine call to the religious life.
The author, Robert Greene, calls it your Life’s Task, “what you are meant to accomplish in the time that you have to live.”
Entrepreneur Naval Ravikant calls it Specific Knowledge, something you don’t consider a skill, but do effortlessly. A combination of “unique traits from your DNA, your unique upbringing and your response to it.”
So when I say life’s work, I mean finding something to do with your life that you actually want to do AND would be good at.
The wisest of every generation have believed in the existence of your life’s work. So, accept that it’s out there and that it’s your job to find it.
You can love your life and have a healthy hunger for more. It can be the desire to build something or to create work that moves people.
This is about finding and moving towards what only you can do.
It won’t happen all at once.
Those who’ve found it, had to start pursuing it on the side, but once they did, they noticed a profound change.
In the War of Art, Steven Pressfield tells the story of when he was making twenty dollars a night driving a cab. One night, he took out his typewriter and forced himself to write for 2 hours.
After writing, he noticed himself whistling as he washed a week’s worth of dishes in his kitchen sink. He was energized.
It was in that moment he realized he was going to be alright. He’d turned a corner. He’d already thrown out what he’d written, but he’d sat down to do the work he knew he was meant to do.
Brian Koppelman, the co-writer of Ocean’s Thirteen and executive director of Showtime’s Billions tells a similar tale.
Long before the hit shows and movies, Koppelman and his co-writer started waking up an hour early and working on movie scripts in a basement. They had no relevant contacts or thoughts about selling what they were creating, but they felt like it was what they were supposed to be doing.
Koppelman started writing scripts because he was afraid to let his creative impulses die. He wasn’t sure where they would take him, but he knew he had to engage them or that their death would be toxic to his life and relationships.
“The moment I was waking up earlier, going into a room, generating pages. I started walking straighter. I started, as I say, moving more lightly through the world.” – Brian Koppelman
Before going any further, I have a recommendation. Grab a pen and paper or open a blank document where you can jot notes. Write down anything that comes to mind.
What follows is everything I know about discovering your life’s work from those who’ve found it.
Finding your Life’s Work: Strategies and Questions
Think back to earlier in life about the things you were naturally drawn to without anyone else’s influence.
You likely had one or two things you were inexplicably interested in – a sport, animals, drawing, tinkering, reading, or writing about a specific topic – but it faded as you got older. If you can’t remember, ask your parents.
As you’ve aged, you’ve lost connection to your natural interests and the things that came effortlessly. To fit in, we let go of our interests outside the mainstream. We tend to avoid pursuits that would draw attention to ourselves.
To make a living, we take what we can get and are told to be grateful.
Your childhood interests and fascinations can be hard to describe, they’re more deep feelings than hard skills. The importance of these early inclinations is that they’re all your own. They’re what’s unique to you. You had them before you had any sense of who or what the world wanted you to be. They’re what you felt pulled towards before you were seduced by prestige, money, and the rat race of lifestyle expansion.
Your early inclinations are important to investigate because they’re you in your purest form. They’re the closest you’ve ever been to your natural interests and tastes.
As you reconnect with your early interests, think about how they’re relevant to what you do now. What skills have you developed that are complementary? Maybe you’re stuck in a shadow career and only a few steps away from your life’s work.
Understand: No one can compete with you on being you. By embracing your unique skills and interests, you’re creating your own lane. You will eliminate competition by leaning into what feels like play to you but looks like work to others.
This guide is about reconnecting with your natural interests and finding something to pour your energy into.
I’ve created a list of questions and resources you can read HERE. Below are a few questions to get you started, but I recommend checking out the full list.
“Become who you are by learning who you are.” – Pindar
QUESTIONS
What feels like play to you, but looks like work to others?
Think about the things you lose track of time doing. What subject can you read and learn about without ever tiring? (Think about the consistent topics across the books, podcasts or videos you consume).
What did you want to do that a parent or someone at school talked you out of? (A note: make sure you don’t want to pursue this out of spite.)
What do you get excited about to explain to people?
What is easy for you to concentrate on and gives you energy?
When do you feel like you’re in a flow state? Defined as, “a kind of intense focus and crisp sense of clarity where you forget yourself, lose track of time, and feel like you’re part of something larger,” by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
What kind of books do you struggle to put down? What subjects do they tend to be about?
What topics or interests do you hope people ask you about?
What topics do your friends come to you for advice about?
What things do friends and family ask for your help with?
Trust your Genius
If you’ve read this far, I’ll bet something is bubbling in your mind. You have at least an idea of work you feel pulled towards.
Act, no matter how small.
Buy the domain name, write the first blog, send a tweet, send a cold email, call someone you know doing similar work. Do something to build momentum.
If an idea is jumping out at you and you don’t act – notice how you feel a week from now. My guess is you’ll still be thinking about it, and you’ll feel badly about not acting.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking everything happens at once. Anyone you want to be like or any pursuit you can imagine starts with a first little bit of effort.
“To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence.” – Steven Pressfield
The hardest part of pursuing your life’s work is trusting yourself. Lean into your own experiences and intuition.
You mistakenly believe that once you know something, everyone else must already know it. So, you let ideas pass by and you don’t act.
“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recognize this trap and don’t fall into it.
You’re a once in a lifetime creation. There will never be another. No one in the history of the world has had or will have your exact thoughts, your exact genetic make-up, your upbringing, and your experiences.
The Romans used the word genius to describe an inner spirt that watches over us and guides us to our calling. Your genius is that inexplicable pull you have towards your unique interests and life’s work.
So trust that bit of genius. Trust your ideas and your instincts. Take action towards the ideas you keep having.
If you know you want more, if you know you have a desire for something to go all out on, this guide was written for you. I know your angst, your pain, and your desire for more.
My hope in writing this is that it helps you catch a glimpse of a life different from the one you’re currently living and move towards it.
Relevant Reading:
3 Things You Should Never Forget
When to Burn the Boats
What's Keeping You From Work You'll Love
We're Running Out of Summers