What do you want to be when you grow up?
What is your thing?
What is your niche?
What is your major?
What will your specialization be in (law) (medicine) (engineering) (art)?
Social norms push at us relentlessly to make decisions about a singular work path. Choosing well, we are told, will set us up for success or failure.
I think about it differently.
In our limited time on earth, we can choose to contribute our energy and efforts toward many meaningful things.
We can help solve complex problems – like David Batstone’s commitment to end human trafficking with Notforsale.org
We can build bridges – like Kai Dupe and his work on the digital divide for people of color at KaiDupe.com
We can change the world through powerful communication – like Nancy Duarte and her work with Duarte Design
We can make the world more accessible to more people – like Glenda Watson-Hyatt and her work at doitmyselfblog
We can strengthen the bond between parents and children – like Marilyn Scott-Waters and her world of free paper toys at thetoymaker.com
Each of these examples show deep commitment to a cause or problem that is bigger than any job title or profession or business. And they can include a whole range of output, including writing, physical products, legal legislation, speeches, books, conversations and roles.
Focusing on a body of work will give you more freedom to choose different work options throughout the course of your life.
So you won’t have to say things like “I am throwing away 10 years of studying and practicing law if I start a yoga studio.”
(Don’t worry — your relatives will say it.)
Or “I am undermining my potential if I take a job as a barista” after you get laid off from your corporate job as a highly-paid creative.
If your body of work is about creating beauty and art, why not make lovely images in latte foam while you are doing what you need to do to take care of your family?
What is your body of work?
Your body of work is everything you say, affect, create, contribute and impact.
Smiling at your neighbor every morning as you get the paper can contribute to your bigger desire to see more happiness and joy in the world.
Your jaunt in a legal career may be a very important part of your body of work contributing to the health of busy professionals through your yoga-based health and wellness practice (see Kelly Newsome’s story here and site here)
My passion for and commitment to seeing and stoking the fire of creation inside all human beings has led me from community development projects on the outskirts of Bogotá to non-profit education to teaching martial arts to corporate consulting to entrepreneur coaching and writing a book. And it will take me new directions in the future, without having to feel constrained by any one audience or business or job title.
A body of work is big and deep and complex. It allows you to experiment and play and change and test.
It supports creative freedom.
Change the spotlight
Focusing on your body of work rather than a you-centric career has the additional benefit of helping with your fear of coming out from behind the curtain of anonymity.
I often run into clients who get anxiety thinking about what may happen when they gain exposure and notoriety.
What if I don’t have all the answers?
What if my life is not all together?
What if I have spinach in my teeth when interviewed by Matt Lauer?
When you realize that your job is to contribute to your body of work, you can conjure up the following visualization:
Imagine you are standing up on a big stage with a large space in front of you. This space represents your body of work — the thing you care most about contributing to.
Now visualize many people directing their energy at you in the form of big beams of light right at your head.
Now strap a mirror to your forehead.
Take all these beams of light and direct them from your head to the body of work in front of you.
Notice how the more people who are sending energy your way, the more illuminated and bright your body of work is?
Fame is fleeting.
Consistent impact over the course of your life on a body of work you care about deeply is legacy.
So beautifully said! Growing up (even with kids today) we are pushed into a vocation, a box, a title, a career with an identity, instead of how we want to contribute to the world. It doesn’t take long before this becomes unsatisfying and the search for something with meaning begins. I absolutely love the latte pic! Perfect example of how art – in unsuspecting ways – can brighten our day!
And may you have a great day too
-Tisha
Beautifully expressed! Other people have always perceived me as being very fragmented and scattered, even though my life feels very cohesive and coherent to me. The lens you hold up in this post really helps because I am just now building an online presence and trying to explain who I am and what I have to offer the world in a way that others can understand and relate to. I look forward to really embodying this paradigm shift and feeling solid with it in my own life! Thank you. This was powerful for me.
I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, just like the corporate business is beholden to stockholders, too many people are scared to move off of the norm.
I do so love this post Pam (you’ve obviously been poking around in my head again!). I had a client that was laid off after 21 years at a corporate job and she said “I basically wasted 21 years of my life and have nothing to show for it”…ouch. I love strategizing and figuring out how skills and experiences can be used to expand on other areas and interests in a person’s next chapter.
“A body of work is big and deep and complex. It allows you to experiment and play and change and test.
It supports creative freedom.”
I love how you touched on the fear aspect too…really breathing into your body of work IS scary because it is where you will truly shine and that does bring attention that you may not be comfortable with…but it is so worth it!
Hugs~
Hi Pam
So, it’s more about the way you move through the world (what I think of as the energy behind what I do) than specific expressions…
I like it! Takes away limiting decisions/boxing in.
And we know you’re all about the un-boxing, right?
Once again, P, you tell it slant and hit a winner! This one opens the window to shift from compulsion of THE recognizable career to one of creative and outward expression that is recognizable to our selves.
I needed this today. I’m going through some sort of transition with regard to what I’m doing/my mission/how to use my life for good.
I believe changing my perspective from “what’s my job title” to “what is my body of work” might help me.
I couldn’t help but think of the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus” when I was reading this.
xo
Beautifully written. A great reminder to focus on the bigger picture of how we bring our gifts and talents to the world. As someone who has been struggling with the “fear of coming out from behind the curtain” this article was an encouragement. Thanks!
What a beautiful way to think about our lives unfolding in front of us. This takes the pressure off. So many of us think that we must find the right job. It’s not about one job – it’s more like a path. And as you said so beautifully – staying on your path and committing to it, and continuing to focus attention on it can create a legacy.
Pamela:
First, it’s a pleasure to “meet” you.
Secondly- you hit the nail squarely on the head.
I was one of those folks. I was 8 years old, going to be a chemical engineer and invent an artificial kidney. And, it probably was cute to my folks, relatives, and others (no one really knows where this idea came from- I have a few hypotheses). But, the real issue is… I did it. At a VERY early age. And, like the dog that catches the car, WHAT NEXT? I was goal-less, to a large extent. Oh, I did things- worked for a few companies, developed a few very neat products, but they were outside imposed. To use a phrase that has become trite this year- “No fire in the belly.”…
Until… I realized that it was going to be my body of work. My personal tag line (and the one I convinced my partners to use) is “Making the world better, one person at a time” (the corporate verson- enterprise). I have taught that to my children, as well.
Thank you so much for this post. I will be sharing it with my clients, friends [all our clients are our friends; not all my friends are clients]), and family.
Hi Pam!
I love the way you put this. Looking at a “career” in this manner simply lends itself to an individuals natural inclinations. I think people would be much closer to finding themselves satisfied with their work if they approached it from this paradigm.
Thank you for putting it so well.
Very thought-provoking. I can’t tell you how many clients have told me that they don’t know what they will be when they grow up – and some of them are 50 or 60 years old. When we condition people that they have to go a single path and that they have to know the path at the age of 20, we condition them for failure and then wonder why they do. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you so much for writing this Pam.
This has been a recurring theme for me over the past few months. I’ve been taking a sort of gestalt view of my varied projects & positions in the past and all of my big plans for the future. I realize now that I *do* have a body of work. It all paints a cohesive picture of…well, something. I haven’t quite figured out how to articulate that part yet. But, it’s on the tip of my tongue. Soon. I’ll know it soon.
Thanks for this reminder Pam. Also, I’m finding that much of my body of work is coming not from my professional past, but from my personal health challenges and how I’ve had to learn to adapt because of them. The far-reaching impact of a seemingly horrible set of circumstances is really blowing me away. It’s taught me to look for purpose in EVERYTHING.
What a great article, Pam. I’m finally coming out of my cubicle-closet and moving into my body of work, and my life has change so much for the better! My past experiences had added to my knowledge base, but it I’d been in my BOW when I experienced them, I’d've been a lot more able to roll with the punches and been a lot happier. I’m very happy to see you spreading this knowledge out to more and more people. Hopefully they’ll shift sooner than I did. (Pssst! Hey, y’all! It *really* is worth it!)
We are more than our jobs. Our entire body of life experiences – and contributions – better defines us.
As long as there’s a tomorrow, we can re-create our stories if we choose.
Wow. I want to share this with everyone I care about. And save it for my 4 year old daughter. Maybe with your influence, people will stop asking kids what they want to be when they grow up and will ask instead, “What problem do you want to spend your creative energy joyfully solving?” Or something like that. Brilliantly done. Denise
Amen.
Stay tuned into The Light.
Illuminatingly,
Voncelle Volté
voncellevolte.blogspot.com
I love this post. It is very liberating. I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation at WDS earlier this month too. Thank you for being a part of the Summit. You were one of the reasons we chose to go!
One thing that arose from you talk there and reading your book with my now cubicle-escapee husband is: how do you find your body of work or passions? I know what mine are, but was lucky to have an artist mother who encouraged exploration. My husband has lived his so far by the book, as they say.
The only thing I can think of is to make a list of any interests and start giving him time to experiment and explore each one. Any other advice is appreciated:)
Holli
I’d like to offer a bit of advice for your husband, if I may. In addition to that list of interests, also have your husband notice what does he gravitate towards in his reading? Cut out articles, jot down books, topics, magazines, etc. that peak his interest. Start developing a ‘body of evidence’ (sorry couldn’t resist:)) that provide clues to what he likes.
Have your husband ask others what they feel are his strengths? What is he the “go-to” guy for? Have him take an assessment or 2 to pinpoint his strengths (Strengthfinder 2.0 is excellent).
Also, I would suggest that your husband really start noticing what activities he is doing when he is feeling ‘in the flow’. Are there things that he does where he loses track of time, feels energized?
Finally, he may not have 1 all consuming passion, but rather be enthusiastically interested in several
Best to you,
Danielle
Thank you, Danielle – wonderful ideas!
He’s a software developer, and on a lower level fixes all our family computers (aunts, uncles, cousins) or anything around the house:)
These suggestions are very do-able.
Thank you.
You’re very welcome Holli
Good luck to your hubby!(and tell him to have fun while he’s in the exploring stage)
Danielle
“Focusing on your body of work rather than a you-centric career has the additional benefit of helping with your fear of coming out from behind the curtain of anonymity.” – love this Pam, and it is a relief to know that I need not be defined by my current occupation (copy editor for a news agency). Rather, I can choose what I can contribute to the world to produce my own body of work.
Cheers!
Prime
Hi Pam! Thanks for this truth-ringing message to greet me at 4:55 a.m. after a mostly sleepless night of worrying about my infinite task list(s)… Your suggestion to frame our efforts as a body of work resonates so well. I always found that those seemingly high-stakes “career” crossroads choices boiled down to two issues: Where will I best learn? Where will I best contribute? And the paths that satisfy those questions — at least for me — seem to involve (to borrow your words) “deep commitment to a cause or problem that is bigger than any job title or profession or business.”
I’m off to re-conceive my day! JB
Goes to show that its not only money but social cause also prevalent in some of us, certainly a good thing.
Beautiful. I love how the idea of a “body of work” allows for all that we are. As a serial entrepreneur I couldn’t live any other way. But this nicely describes how building loft developments and building websites, people’s online homes, all fit into my”body of work”. Same idea different medium. Thanks Pam.
Great post, Pam. If you define yourself by your position or title, you’re bound to be limiting yourself. I love your advice, we should look at our body of the work, the change we want to bring to the world as the scope of what we do, really provides for some amazing paths.
Pam, this is such a fantastic perspective shift. I especially like visualizing the mirror on my forehead and the reminder that it isn’t about me…
This is why I am coming to Lift Off 4 this summer…for this kind of shift and wisdom to help me bring my body of work to the world. Can’t wait!
Julie
Yes, yes, and yes.
I talk about the offer you ARE versus the offers you MAKE. The offer you are is analogous to a body of work. It includes everything you’ve learned, all your experiences. It is enriched and informed by all of you, warts and all.
The offers you make are expressions or iterations of the offer you are. They may change, even dramatically. But at the heart there is you and what you care about most deeply.
Hey Pam – As a veteran of slowly coming out from behind the curtain, I absolutely love the visualization you provide by envisioning your people as an embodiment of your work and their appreciation of you as beams of light ultimately reflected back on them. I had fun envisioned that one!
I couldn’t agree with you more — its much more impactful if you can understand your internal drives, what you stand for or truly believe in and how it helps you make choices in the direction of your emerging body of work. So cool!
And its the ability to recognize the patterns of what motivates you and demotivates you as a matter of fact that can keep you on course. And btw thank you for keeping me on course by pointing out my patterns!!!
May the force be with you as you explore the next path in stoking the fire of creation inside all human beings! Awesome!!!