FAQ

A Dream Career is a career where you feel fulfilled and excited. It is doing what you love at work. It is matching your passions, your life purpose and your personality to a career that fits you like a glove. It is not how much money you are making. There are people in their Dream Careers earning seven figure incomes as well as people earning five- and six-figure incomes. It is not about status or fame or power. It is all about finding and expressing your unique self. 

Yes. I wasn’t sure myself before starting my 3 and a half year research project where I interviewed over 200 people living their dreams at work. But after meeting them and many others since then, I know it is not only possible but there are people in your community doing it. 

Fantasies are imagined scenario that don’t have a known equivalent in the real world. On the other hand, dreams are aspirations with real outcomes that can be measured and achieved. 

Doing something at work that doesn’t match your true self can lead to increased stress, which causes many harmful health problems, from chronic pains to high blood pressure to depression to heart attacks. It can also lead to drug abuse to counter the effects of the work stress and will put a strain on relationships outside the work space.

In addition, you may always wonder whether you could have done it and have a lot of regrets later in life. H. Jackson Brown, Jr, author of Life’s Little Instruction Book, once said, “Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.” 

Stress is like an iceberg with many of its effects building under the surface until one day it emerges. Warning signs could include worrying, overeating, smoking and/or drinking more, more frequent colds or headaches, being more irritable, difficulty concentrating or worsening work performance. 

Yes, you can definitely make money – often more than you are making now – doing what you love. There has never been a better time in the history of the world to seek out and start living your Dreams at work. With the advent of fast, efficient technology and the internet’s ability to make the world a small global village to which you can market and sell to, you can now sell your service as easily to someone 1,000 kilometers away as it is to someone in your neighbourhood. There are many methods for using this leverage to earn more income. 

Everyone I interviewed had some obstacle, and many people had several large ones to overcome including financial issues. This is definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme or get your Dream-Career-quick scheme. You can transition responsibly. The people in my book did it. None of them won a lottery before they began their Dream Career. It can take some time to transition out of your dissatisfying job to your Dream Career but if you start today you will be in your Dream Career a lot faster. 

All of the people I interviewed are ordinary people who did extraordinary things by overcoming all obstacles in their path to do what they love. In that sense we all have genius inside of us. We all have one or two things we are very good at and we do it in our own unique way. In my private practice, I have yet to work with anyone with whom I was unable to help them find their hidden talents and passions if they did the necessary work. 

Not at all. In fact I have devoted a whole chapter to the “age myth”. People are working longer now than ever before. Because of technology it is becoming easier to work later in life at your own pace with reduced weekly hours. You will be interested to see how people in the book began their Dream Career in their mature years. 

You will:

• Spend the majority of your day in an activity you like instead of merely passing time.
• Feel a sense of vitality in your life, which may have been missing before
• Find more meaning in life’s everyday routines
• Be an immense role model for your children and others
• Feel more alive and your relationships will improve.
• Find you have more energy
• Be interested in learning more about what you do and therefore you will be better at it
• Be happier
• Be healthier
• Stop working against your natural self and begin aligning yourself with your true YOU 

The careers highlighted in the book are from a broad spectrum of society. They include blue collar and white collar careers, employee and employer and private and public sector.

Success in living your dream lies not in the specific career you do but in finding the right match for you. 

At the end of each true account I have written insights as to what that person did, how they did it and how you can use the same techniques to get you moving in the direction that’s right for you.
I also included each contributor’s contact number and/or email address so you can speak to them directly if you wish to ask them a question or want to use their excellent services.
I have personally found that people doing what they love are usually good at it because they have a built-in interest in continuing to learn and grow in their industry. 

Each chapter is cross referenced with a specific career. If you are interested in a certain career you can go right to that story and see how that person was able to live his or her dream.