Don't Change Your Job

Don't Change Your Job... Just Change Your Job Description
by Russ Hamel

Don't change your job, unless you're really in the wrong place. Instead, do what I did about six years ago. I changed my job description and I can't begin tell you what a change that has made in my life!

You see, I never consciously chose my career. When I was a kid I didn't say, "When I grow up, I want to be a ____" I did pretty much what I saw other people around me doing. I got up; ran the daily routine; went to bed. The next day I repeated the process. CHOICES? It never occured to me when I was growing up that there were choices! Life sort of just happened... well, didn't it?

However, when it came time to graduate from high school, I found out that I had to make some kind of decision about what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I honestly had no clue! So with the help of the guidance department it was determined that since my main talent (ok, my ONLY talent) at the time was in music, I would pursue a career in that field.

I was advised to go for a degree in teaching because, "You could ALWAYS fall back on that!" And that's how I became a 'music' teacher.

I can count at least five times that I actually attempted to change careers since I began teaching in 1972. Those were the MAJOR attempts. I'm not going to count the hundreds of times I wanted to pack it all in, because everyone has to deal with those kind of days. Reluctantly, I would come back to teaching music. It seemed to be my only talent. And I never saw myself as having any choice!

Heck, to this day I'm still not that passionate about music. I don't even listen to the radio at home!

You want to see passion? Talk to me about my cat!

Or my computer!

Or my favorite sports teams!

OR

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT!

For years, I've been soaking up self-help, psychology and philosophy material like a dry, thirsty sponge. And in my 'music' classes I found myself telling the students more about how a particular challenge related to their personal lives. The more personal I got, the more passionate I became about my work.

Then one day, about six years ago I consciously made a choice! I was no longer a 'music' teacher. From that day, I became a teacher of life skills. see ITeachLifeSkills.com

I tell people now that I could be flipping hamburgers at McDonalds and I would still be teaching life skills. That's really who I am. That's what I do!

To me, there is no greater satisfaction in the world than to have one of my former students come up to me and say, "I remember what you said about such-and-such and this is how it helped me." And during that entire conversation, not ONE WORD is spoken about 'music'!

Music is just something I was good at as a kid. Personal development is my true passion. Now I simply use my natural talents in music as a platform to teach the more important things in life.

If you are like me and fell into a career because of a certain set of skills, you don't have to throw those talents away. Don't change your job... just change your job description!

Posted by russhamel