Deciding between passion and money when getting a job

Money does not equal happiness. We hear it over and over again, but it does take a certain (sometimes feels like a lot) of money to have the basic necessities in life and want to take a vacation each year. I truly believe that there is a balance we should seek when looking for a job we are excited to go to everyday and making enough money to satisfy our general needs. Sometimes you might not always love the 9-5 part of your day, but what we should remember is that we can still have a passion project on the side. Find your why and focus on the parts of your job that you do enjoy to understand what type of work will fill your soul.

I always try to find the positive in any situation, believing in the fact that God has placed me there for a reason. My job right now, for example, I know there is a reason that I met not one, but TWO people that summer working for the same company that crossed my path. I am here to say that when I first started consulting it was tough. This was a completely new industry to me and a new way of working. This was so different from the other jobs that I had where I clocked in and out at the same time everyday completing mundane tasks that were handed to me by my supervisor where I had no chance of moving up unless they retired or left the company.  Now I was in a job that allowed me to be creative and help businesses solve the big problems they face each day. What a powerful opportunity I was given to affect change and to learn from some of the most intelligent people I have ever met.

One thing you will learn about me is my eagerness to learn and be challenged. I say that I enjoy this, but that is not always the case. There are always trying times when being challenged because you are forced to step out of your comfort zone. With most things in life I have always been able to do this and succeed. One thing that Orangetheory fitness taught me is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and that is exactly what consulting has done for me. I am constantly meeting new teams, creating new deliverables, strengthen my skillset in new roles. There are a lot of vulnerable moments because chances are you are going to fail and we live in a very critical world where you might not create exactly what someone was looking for. You have to be strong enough to pull yourself up and try again. Learn how to work with difficult personalities and be an active listener. Sometimes we are so quick to respond that we forget to truly listen to what someone is asking for, what someone is describing as a pain point or that maybe they just want to be heard. We can learn a lot about the problems we are trying to solve simply by being observant and listening to what a group is trying to express when they have a chance to be heard.

I am passionate about so many different things from travel to fitness to food to business to environmental causes and culture. Unfortunately the big bucks out of those are business, but I often wonder what would happen if I could put them all together and use my purpose to connect people together and help them reach their goals. What an extraordinary thought. Right now I am bogged down with something that I am sure many people are familiar with, student loans payments. So right now I feel like I have to choose money over passion and I am here to tell you that it is simply not the case. My job has always encouraged me to get involved in lots of different ways to increase my passions and find a way to serve our clients through these passions.

I am a part of the Wellness team at work where I get to brainstorm on ways to help my colleagues live a healthier life and make lifestyle changes that will help them perform at their best. I have gotten to use my passion for fitness and planning to coordinate free events for employees to check out different classes in the city. I am also on the ECO team where I get to volunteer at metro parks and help pull weeds or clean up the city. Here I get to network with managers and talk to them about what they are passionate about and how they got into consulting or my favorite topic—why do they stay? I would encourage anyone that has a passion to pursue it and find a way to fold it into your work life. You might coordinate an event, send out emails and have an even bigger turnout than you imagined where you will get to connect with others on a common interest other than the place that you work.  This can ignite a fire in you and you might find yourself in a different role than you currently hold because someone now knows a passion that you have and what you can accomplish when you are doing something you are passionate about—and hey maybe even paid to do it.