Find Purposeful Work With the Joy-Cash Flow Model
“Follow your passion” is not always the best advice, in part because it is so limiting . Rather than looking for the only path to success, Chris Guillebeau recommends looking for work that intersects in three areas: joy, money, and flow.
When you “follow your passion,” it usually means that you are planning to work on one specific task. Maybe you want to become a filmmaker, musician or marine biologist. However, life doesn’t always work out so smoothly, and you may find that you actually don’t like the job, or maybe you just don’t know much about it, or maybe it’s just not a viable career path. There is nothing wrong with trying something specific, but as Guillebeau points out, there is not necessarily a single path to finding a focused job. He’s writing:
There are many things you could do with your career, but the most successful people have found the perfect combination of joy, money, and flow. They won the career lottery by finding this combination – and they don’t have to choose between money and life.
Essentially, joy is your passion, what makes you happy. Money speaks for itself, but to be clear, it’s what keeps you going if it doesn’t make you rich. Finally, flow is what you are particularly good at. Guillebeau explains:
As with joy, you don’t always need to be in stream mode. You will most likely have periods of continuous work interspersed with more regular periods of work. But just like you want work that is “fun” most of the time, you want to be in the flow as often as possible.
When you find your perfect combination, you will know. It will seem that he has been waiting for you all this time. That’s the beauty of finding the job you were born to do.
This model makes sense because it is so much more than just a passion. It’s about building a career that supports you and allows you to use your best skills. Not everyone is so lucky that they overlap in every one of these areas, but if you feel frustrated and confused about your current path, this is a useful way to think about what kind of career you might want.
There is nothing wrong with working on a career that brings you joy, but if you consider all three factors, you open up a wider network and have a better chance of finding purposeful and meaningful work. To learn more about this idea, go to the full post at the link below.
JOY, MONEY AND FLOW: THREE QUALITIES OF A WHOLE WORK | Chris Guillebeau via Rockstar Finance