Loving what we are hearing, seeing or doing… being immersed. What is that? How do we find it? What is the value of it in our lives? These are intriguing and big questions. Happy February and welcome to The broadCAST™. This is a monthly weigh in by members of The CAST™ of Epic Engage™. Independent experts in their own right, members of The CAST™ are asked to answer a question of simple but possibly profound nature. We wholeheartedly encourage you to connect with these experts on their respective expertise and how it might be of service to you. They each bring great value in service to their work. Oh, and we welcome our 10th and newest member of The CAST™, Krista Walsh!
For February 2017
With that in mind, the question to The CAST™ for February is:
“From your perspective, is it important to love what you do? If so, why? And how do you find it?“
Actually, there are 3 questions. 🙂 Onwards, let us see what The CAST™ thinks.
KRISTA WALSH SAYS
I choose to share my message via video today… my two cents or more on loving what you do. Enjoy. 🙂
Krista Walsh is about productivity and creating cash flow. Krista is an award winning entrepreneur, author and speaker. From dental assistant drop out, to family business builder, to emerging leader for Atlantic Canada (twice), Krista will share her journey from failure to success and explore how to increase your cash flow and productivity. In 2005 Krista established “KC COLLECT,” a credit, collection and resource company. It would be the first and only female-owned collection agency in Atlantic Canada. Krista’s informative presentations engage and challenge audiences to effectively manage and build their businesses, professional relationships, and enhance their profiles. Andrew Oland- President, Moosehead Breweries says “Krista is a smart, dedicated and passionate woman. She is an engaging and practical presenter who adds tremendous value to any audience.” Her breakout sessions will assist you in navigating the practical tools you can implement immediately to increase sales and productivity, enhance and build relationships, and strengthen and increase cash flow. Krista’s determination and vision has been recognized by her peers and she has twice received the Atlantic Canadian Emerging Award as one of Canada’s leading young entrepreneurs. www.kccollect.vpweb.ca
RAY HOLLISTER SAYS
I have had this discussion numerous times, and I find that people can be quite divided on this issue. From my perspective, it is not important to love what you do per se; however, it IS extremely important to be committed to what you do. I believe that loving what you do makes your life not just easier, but much more fun as well. But commitment, not love, is a better indicator of success. As far as how to ‘find’ loving what you do, I genuinely believe when you give 100% commitment and effort, results follow. And as the results pile up, love of what you do may not be far behind. With that concept in mind, I feel it is important to point out that most entrepreneurs I have run across don’t go into business for themselves in an industry that they don’t like! Far more often, the love is already there, and that love helps propel and fuel their commitment to succeed. The same holds true for students I work with. I can count on one hand how many students I come across that love taking tests! Yet, with commitment and effort, any student can get A’s and even ace any exam. And, as described above, the more success a student has with getting excellent grades on tests, the more they enjoy school. And yes, some even come to love education! It is my sincere hope that you genuinely love what you do, and even more so that you remain committed to it. Ray 🙂
Ray Hollister is all about strength, excellence and potential. In fact, he has a very special connection with students – he’s helped thousands achieve average scores of over 90% for 20 years! His love of learning… and his ability to teach anybody the same easy strategies he used to study far less than everyone else while maintaining outrageously high test scores… quickly earned him a lot of ‘friends’ seeking his advice. Ray has personally conducted numerous studies to develop an intense, focused, and results oriented program for college students. With the success of that program, Ray set his sights on helping younger students in Junior High, High School, and those just entering University. The end result is a program that will help any student – especially YOU – learn more, study less, and earn consistently high grades. www.rayhollister.net
SHEENA GROBB SAYS
When you love what you do… it’s as they say… you’ll never “work” a day in your life. The sheer act of loving what we’re doing fulfills a deep need we each have to express our highest purpose. Fulfillment is then as inevitable as an exhale following an inhale. When we love what we do, our state of wellbeing is heightened and the impact of our actions on others and our environment is magnified. We each have a unique set of gifts and skills that lend perfectly to our life’s work. There is no one else who can offer exactly what we can…. or in the same way. Looking for what makes us unique is often a key towards finding what we love. We often love what we’re good at, and what sets us apart. We feel natural attractions to activities, memories, or events connected to our childhood, when we were free from judgments and open to our inner guidance more fully. One exercise worth exploring might be to make a list of cherished childhood activities or memories. From this, you may derive a sense of your natural passions and even calling. If nothing pertinent arises, make a list of 10 activities you’ve always wanted to try, no matter how far fetched it may seem, and carve out some time to explore your interests.
Sheena Grobb Singer/Songwriter and Speaker… is humbly amazing. “It is without a doubt a masterpiece of songwriting and soundscape. Really incredible, soulful music. She will definitely get a huge audience in time, trust me.” Alex Wharton, Abbey Road Studios. A songbird from the age of two, songwriter at ten, with 3 albums under her belt, a nomination for the Western Canadian Music Awards, and over 500 tour dates across Canada, the US, and the UK, Sheena Grobb (one of Canada’s best kept secrets) is spilling over. With the release of her newest album, The Breakless Heart, mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, and a life changing music video created by Lindsey Nelko (past choreographer with So You Think You Can Dance), Sheena is embarking on her most meaningful project yet – The Living Compassion Project™ – inviting others to “unlock their lives” through sharing their stories… as she begins to share hers. www.sheenagrobb.com
CHRIS SPURVEY SAYS
MARK BLACK SAYS
When we love what we do it is beneficial for everyone. You enjoy your work more, those who work with you do as well. And if you serve clients or customers, they will benefit as well. I think it’s important to distinguish what we mean by loving your work however: it’s often said that if you love what you do, you never “work” a day in your life. I don’t buy that. It implies that loving what you do is a passive act – you love or hate your job because of the job and not because of you. Rather, I believe how much you love your job is the result of how much love you put INTO it.
JOEL SWEENEY SAYS
Joel Sweeney is all about effective communications. He has been speaking, training, coaching and writing about it for over 20 years. He is the author of The Wedding MC Handbook and Little Helpings of Food for Thought. His third book, The Speaker’s Tool Box – Perfecting the Craft of Speaking, was released in the 2015. He is the owner of Professionally Speaking (established in 1995). Joel helps entrepreneurs and business professional become effective, engaging and confident speakers. www.JoelSweeney.com
MAJEED MOGHARREBAN SAYS
Should you love what you do in work? If you want to enjoy it, yes. If you want to get better at it, yes. If you want to attract great customers, yes. If you want to impact lives, yes. In short, if you want to be world class at anything, you must love it. That said, you can learn to love it if you don’t love it now. Find something about it that challenges you. Connect with the people around you and learn to love the people you work with and work for. Finally, how do you know what you love? Pay attention to how time speeds up with you are “in the zone” or “in flow”, and an hour feels like five minutes. When you are doing something you don’t love, five minutes feels like an hour. Pay attention to those cues. Do more of what you love and less of what you don’t love.
Majeed Mogharreban is all about entrepreneurship. He owned and sold five successful businesses and traveled to 24 countries before he was 21 years old. After early success in business, now his mission is to support the next generation of entrepreneurs to make a difference doing what they love. With clients ranging from the United Nations, to start-up businesses, to an Olympic gold medalist, Majeed helps you discover your strengths and your passions so that work is meaningful and fun. His book, Winning At Life, is a guide for young people to make a plan and win at life. www.majeedm.com
TRENT LANGDON SAYS
It became glaringly obvious to me as I pondered this question that we typically think in terms of our ‘career choice’ when discussing “a love of what we do”. But life is filled with options that need not be solely dictated by the letters after our name or our workplace. So many have invested great time and effort into career paths that have panned out to be far less than what they had hoped; but should this be a life sentence? With career change and mobility being increasing difficult, it is essential that we create a lifestyle through extracurricular, recreational, and voluntary means that will lead to “loving what you do.” It is our responsibility to invest in our social and emotional lives such that we can live outside the confines of our work experience and not be defined by the same. We will benefit individually and as a community with such a mindset.
Trent Langdon is all about building legacy through character education and development. He is a junior high school counselor for 650+ adolescents and is dedicated to serving his students, their families, and communities. Trent works on behalf of his colleagues to build identity, protect professional roles, and to give teachers ‘a voice’; currently completing his 2nd term as a member of the Provincial Executive Council of the Newfoundland & Labrador Teachers Association (NLTA) and now as the incoming NLTA Vice-President for the 2017-2019 term of office. Trent is also a Canadian Certified Counselor with the Canadian Counseling & Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) and serves as a member of the CCPA Ethics Committee (Complaints Division). And last but certainly not least, Trent is a proud contributor to the Epic Engage team. www.epicengage.com
JAMIE McCABE SAYS
BARRY LEWIS GREEN SAYS
First, off… if you are truly looking to finding what you love to do… I would strongly and emphatically recommend What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles. I have loved and applied the material for years, since my first exposure in 1982; and it is updated annually! With that said, for me, loving what you do is such an incredibly important notion to explore. The late great Stephen Covey wrote of love as an action. In some ways Steven Pressfield wrote of such action in The War of Art. I certainly concur and see the action in love. I also understand love to be a virtue that can be accessed and practiced by us all. With that in mind, some years back I developed an acronym for L.O.V.E.™ that I find useful… particularly when deciding to love what we do…. or find that work. The exploration, I contend, is vital, crucial, imperative… even. Indeed, I love the perspectives shared by The CAST™ this month. I think it is “all of the above” for me. Still and ultimately, I think finding it is about truthfulness. It is about looking at our lives and seeing where we most joyously have experienced life, in the doing and being. When Lawrence Pearsall Jacks wrote… “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” … I think he was speaking to the love of what we do in life. With that in mind, I think love has two primary facets… love as liking something very much and love as committing to excellence. These facets have been dear to my heart and mind for a long time and I decided, just this morning amidst rising and getting on with the day, to share them right here. ?
Barry Lewis Green is ultimately a vocalist, strength coach and educator. His work is about voicing, exploring, identifying, practicing and mastering our strengths and building upon them through practical and powerful unity and resourcefulness. His book Human Being Being Being Human speaks to that. and that is why Barry is The Unity Guy™. EPIC Engage™ is an extension of The Unity Guy™. The Epic work is all about building strong, united and inspired cultures lead by character… at school, work and community; where everyone matters and contributes everyday. www.epicengage.com
QUOTES for the MONTH
- Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. — Henry David Thoreau
VIDEO for the MONTH
- Steve Jobs on loving what you do.
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