How to Make Money Doing What You Love Learn advanced self-improvement techniques that will get you out of the job you hate and into making money by doing what you love.

As we head into the holiday season and 2008 quickly approaches, a lot of us are going to be sitting down to wirte out some New Years Resolutions. One of the things I would strongly encourage everyone to do is to spend some time to connect to their true self before doing any goal setting or planning for the upcoming year ahead.

To help you do this I’ve written a list of 10 things you can do to help you find your true self.

1. Schedule time for yourself. Book an appointment sometime this week to take at least 1-2 hours for your self, by your self, without any distraction to work on yourself. Go to a quiet place like a park, or a public library where you can be alone in a quiet environment. Sitting in front of the TV won’t work. Turn off your cell phone. The world won’t end because you’re unreachable for an hour.
2. Start a journal. Start a journal where you can write your most private thoughts. Thinking is great, but it is too prone to distractions. One minute you’re thinking about finding yourself, the next minute you’re thinking about a bill you forgot to pay or something you said to someone that you shouldn’t have. Writing your thoughts on paper, as you’re thinking them, focuses your thinking on one topic.
3. Forget about what everyone else in your life thinks you should do. People who truly love you, just want you to be happy. You can never be happy if all you’re doing in your life is what others think you should do. You need to stop doing that and find out who you are and what you want to do. If you still care too much what people think, write “If I was one of those people who didn’t care what other people thought at all here’s what I would write” on top of the page and then pretend you’re one of those people who don’t care.
4. Begin to run through self searching questions. The way to do that is by eliminating real-world blocks that you’ve conditioned yourself to believe. Think in terms of hypotheticals. For example, you might start a page in your journal and ask yourself “If I had 50 Million dollars which I could only spend on doing what I love in life, I would…” and write down whatever pops into your mind. Or you may start with “If my family and friend supported me with doing anything I ever wanted to, it would be …”, or “If I was a lot younger, I would have …” etc. Use probing questions to eliminate blocks and kind of go into fantasy land for a while and explore some questions. This isn’t about being realistic. It’s about learning what makes you tick.
5. Make a list of 10-20 people you admire or like in life. This can be anyone from family members to co-workers, to famous people or people that inspire you. Write down a list of the best quality each person has. For example, if you listed “Einstein” you may list “Intelligent” as the quality you see in him. If you wrote down “My Mom” you might see “Loving” as a quality you see in her, etc.
6. Re-write your list of 10-20 qualities beside your name on a piece of paper and ask yourself if the same qualities you see in others are the qualities you value in yourself. You’ll be surprised to see that the list is a fairly accurate representation of you.
7. Ask yourself the question “If I couldn’t fail at anything for 1 year, what would I do?”
8. Start a library at home focused on personal development and self improvement. Self Improvement books work on the ego part of you, helping your true self to tame your ego. The more you can get your ego out of the way, the more your true self will shine through. Remember, your true self is already there, underneath the surface hiding behind all of your fears. You don’t need to create it, you simply need to uncover it by slowly chiseling away the ego on the surface.
9. If you haven’t already, start an exercise regiment of some sort. It doesn’t matter if it’s a martial arts class, yoga, or just going to the gym. The process of exercising your body strengthens your ‘mind over matter’ connection.
10. Read and study this quote by Marianne Williamson from A Return to Love: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Also, if you haven’t already, you might want to download a free copy of my eBook called “The Passion Project”. It has a number of exercises to help you find your passion in life.