This post is by Brandi-Ann Uyemura of The Inspiring Bee.

Ask me where I was a year ago or even ten years ago and I’d say I was anywhere and everywhere hopping from job to job. Ask me who I was then and I’ll tell you I was lost.

Yet, here I am. It’s been a year since I decided to quit full-timing and finally listening to my inner voice that said, “You need to stop going with the grain and follow the beat of your own drum.” Yes, my inner voice likes to talk in clichés.

Never would I have expected that in a year, I would be self-employed as a full-time writer, get published in a magazine I admire, be a guest in a radio show, have five seconds of fame on Penn & Teller’s Bullshit, have one of my blogs picked up by US News or be an Associate Editor for Psych Central. Weird how life works like that, isn’t it?

But is it fate or faith? How about both?

Being your own advocate

I think transforming your life involves a lot of you in the equation. You know how Mahatma Gandhi said those famous words, “Be the change you wish to see in the world?” I think you need to be the transformation as well.

I used to have a friend or a relative say, “I wish I did _______.” (Hula, yoga, etc.) Whenever they said it, I got so excited and enthused. “I’ll do it with you!” I said. But what always happened is that I ended up taking the class by myself.

I could never understand why people had big dreams or even little ones, but then let the opportunity pass them by. But I learned that like a deer in the headlights, they became too afraid to be exactly what they want to be.

But to see change happen, you need to transform yourself.

If you are ready, the gifts of the journey are priceless, everlasting and valuable. And surprisingly, more beneficial than anything you could win from a lottery. When you become your own advocate and take initiative to change your life, the process of change transforms you as well. That’s the best part of the journey and the hardest part.

The good news is that if you’re on the brink of change and desire it but don’t know how to get there, these five steps will help push you straight into your own transformative journey.

1. Be a turtle rather than a hare.

There’s a seductive quality about getting where you want to go fast. It’s the purpose of freeways and the Internet. We’re impatient and we want it now. But change takes time. It might not take you ten years, like it did for me. But it will take longer than a day or even a few weeks.

Part of the reason why it takes so long to be the person you want to be or get the job you really want to get, is that there are often fears involved. You’ve taken this long to realize you want to change, but you haven’t. That usually means there are fears holding you back and preventing you from getting there.

So how does one get past the fears?

Start slow. Build confidence. Practice being the person you aspire to be. Act as if you were already that person. Take small steps to get to the dream and you will get there stronger, more courageous and better able to be that person after you’ve gone through the difficult journey.

2. Be quiet to hear the inner voice.

Meditate. Take long walks in nature. Practice yoga. Do whatever it takes to get away from the loud sounds of electricity piping through your computer. Spend enough time away from the chaos of daily life and your vision will become clearer. If you have the courage, listen to that voice. If you do so, I guarantee you will get there.

3. Minimize negativity and maximize positivity.

At the beginning of my career as a writer, I was insecure and doubtful of my talents. There was a world of better writers and I felt pale and insignificant in comparison. So guess what happened? I attracted negative people in my life. People who agreed that I wasn’t very good and that I would never make it in the world. I attracted clients who had as much confidence in me as I had in myself. And that wasn’t a lot. A flurry of publications and clients called and I got jobs. But I got jobs from those who either refused to pay me or made it difficult for me to get paid. I surrounded my outer world, by the voices that directed my inner one.

If there was one thing I regretted most is that I didn’t learn how to shut off my negative thoughts, before I opened myself up to the world as a writer.

Be careful about whom you spend your time with and what words you let into your mind. They have the power to transform your life, positive and negative, if you let them.

4. Find your heroes.

At first, I needed support. I needed encouragement. I needed someone to tell me what I was doing was the right thing to do. I did not find this in family. I did not find it in co-workers. I needed to work on finding my own heroes.

When you’re new and vulnerable, look for heroes in friends, in biographies and even life coaches, if necessary. My blog also gave me the incentive to contact people who inspired me. It was passion that gave me the courage to email author Bonnie St. John, for example, or two bloggers who I admired from afar. Their responses gave me confidence that I was going in the right direction and motivated me to keep going.

5. Be open to possibility.

The shoes you are wearing right now may not be the shoes of your dreams. Those shoes could be standing in a pile of poop actually. But that will change, if you open your mind to the possibility of a better life.

When I was working at a corporate job, my mind was as confining as my uninspiring cubicle. I thought that there was no way I could be or do anything different.

But my life coach said, “Imagine, just for a minute, that everything you ever wanted, was possible. Just sit with it. You don’t have to change or make any steps toward that goal. But just see what happens when you let yourself be open to the possibility.”

Transforming your life means narrowing your goals, planning out the steps, creating a business plan for your career. But it also means dealing with the uncertainties, the fears and things that constrain you and put limits on your dreams.

When we allow the, “what if” in our lives as in, “what if I could be the person I believe I deserve to be or is meant to be,” a space opens up. Just thinking of the possibility could drastically change your life. It could mean you see an opportunity available you hadn’t seen before. It could mean giving you the courage to contact people who are already living the life of their dreams. When you begin to think you can versus you can’t, you start seeing life as possibility rather than limitation.

There are things in life that you can’t control. But changing yourself and your life are things that you can. Follow these steps and you will be on your way to life changing transformation.

Brandi-Ann Uyemura is a freelance writer and an Associate Editor who inspires others to live an inspiring life on her own blog The Inspiring Bee. Follow her on Twitter @2inspired.

This guest post is written by Anita Karlson of AnitaKarlson.com.

For as long as humans have existed, dreams have been a source for inspiration—and part of the mythical and mystical sphere. In ancient times, it was the spiritual and religious teachers who would tell followers what their dreams meant. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was the first psychologist who started looking at our dreams in a scientific way.

Over recent decades, the realms of our dreams have been the subjects of a number of studies. We can now measure the chemicals active in our brain during sleep, and we can monitor where brain activity occurs. We have learned that our dreams are doorways into our subconscious mind, where we can access information which is otherwise unavailable to us.

When we’re awake, the dominant chemicals in our brains are serotonin and noradrenalin. These chemicals are associated with realistic thinking and the ability to reflect and draw logical conclusions. In REM (rapid eye movements) sleep, where we dream, the levels of these chemicals are reduced to zero. Other chemicals then dominate our brain. These chemicals are responsible for creating strong emotions and the ability to make connections between isolated thoughts, allowing us to find new and creative solutions to tricky problems!

How to remember your dreams

First things first: you need to remember your dreams if they are to help you. If you already remember your dreams, great! Skip this part. If not, read on.

Remembering your dreams is not as difficult as you might think. Within a week of practicing, most people will be able to remember at least part of their dreams. There are lots of books and articles on how to remember dreams. I can recommend The Dream Workbook by Joe Friedman.

The most important thing is the intention you set while drifting of into sleep. Tell yourself repeatedly that you want to remember your dream. Then when you wake up, lie completely still and search in your memories for fragments of dreams. Often, when you can remember one image, others will follow easily.

Have a notebook and pen ready next to your bed, and once you have remembered the dream or sections of it, write it down. If you don’t write it down, chances are you will have forgotten it within a few hours of getting out of bed.

How to understand your dream

You are the only one who can interpret your dreams correctly. As each individual is unique, each of us will have unique dreams. There is no encyclopaedia you can look up to find out what the different elements in your dream mean.

If you dream about a bench, it’s not just any old bench. It will be a specific bench that you have specific memories attached to. It can be the blue-painted bench your dog ran into when you were a child. Or it can be the broken, rusty bench on which you kissed your first girlfriend. Whatever bench you dream of, it will have a different meaning for you than the bench I dream of will have for me.

The best way to start understanding your own dream language is to write a dream journal, and analyze your dreams. There are several approaches to analyzing your dreams: one is the technique of associations. Pick one of the main elements of your dream and write down all associations that come to your mind. Or you can focus on the emotion you have in your dream and find situations in life where you feel the same emotion. With time and practice you will be able to interpret your own dreams.

How to have a solution-oriented dream

Once you’re able to both remember your dreams and make some sense of them, you can aim to have a solution-oriented dream.

Pick a business problem that you can’t seem to solve. Then take some time trying to find solutions to the problem while you’re awake. Think it trough, analyze it, and write down your thoughts. Then formulate the problem in just one short sentence.

Before you go to sleep, take a few minutes to sum up the problem in your mind, and as you drift into sleep, tell yourself that you want to have a solution-oriented dream that solves the problem. Use the short sentence you made earlier for this.

When you wake up, write your dreams down and start to look for the connection to your problem. Often, it’ll come as a complete surprise, and sometimes you will not be able to see the solution immediately.

If you can’t see the solution, try running it by a friend! Often someone else can have valuable input, however remember that you have the solution yourself. If what the other person suggests don’t resonate with you, then discard it as the solution.

Try repeating the process, and aim for another dream on the same topic. See if the next dream sheds some light on the issue from another angle.

My solution-oriented dream for attracting more clients

When I started to work part time as a Reiki healer, I had problems finding clients. I made a web site, I hung up posters, and tried as best I could to advertise. But somehow the clients just were not coming my way.

One evening I decided to try for a solution-oriented dream. One hour of thinking and two pages of notes later, I drifted of into sleep repeating to myself: “I want to remember a solution-oriented dream that shows me how I can attract more clients.”

In my dream, I was walking trough the rooms of a house which I was thinking of buying. Suddenly one of my best friends appeared. I was happy to see her, and remembered I had a magazine with an interesting article to show her. She started to read, and suddenly she smiled and was talking very excitedly, which made me very happy.

She took the magazine and walked into the next room, where a couple was sitting at a table. She showed them the magazine and they were all talking very excitedly. As I stood by the window and watched the couple leave the house they stopped to talk to someone in the garden. They were leaning over the magazine and again talking excitedly.

When I woke up I quickly realized what the dream was telling me: my friends and family could help me attract clients by word of mouth! And here I’d been totally focused on trying to find clients by hanging up posters, optimizing my homepage, and running a few ads in local newspapers.

Dream a solution

You might have to invest a little time and effort into making sense of your dreams. But once you start to understand your dream images, an entire new universe will open up to you! Have you ever dreamed a solution to a problem? Share your experience in the comments.

Anita is blogging about how to live a more natural, healthy and balanced life. Sign up for her newsletter and get weekly tips directly to your inbox.

This post is by Shaun McCarthy of Money Cactus.

Hands up if you are interested in creating wealth! Good, now keep your hands up if you are happy to work hard for it … Do you still have your hand up? If you do, we have a problem!

I’m not going to tell you that wealth creation is easy and you can do it sitting on your hands, but it’s not really that hard, either. The real problem is that wealth creation is a concept that is misunderstood by most people. It’s not just about making money, accumulating assets and increasing your net worth. These are just terms about numbers, helpful ones for a part of wealth creation, but who wants to be a number?

Wealth creation is better than making money, it’s about creating a wealthy life!

Real Wealth Creation

The best part about wealth creation is the creative part. There isn’t just one way to go about achieving a result—in fact, it is completely up to you. You can choose where you want to direct your energy and what you want to focus on, which means it is nothing like hard work! You can apply this to investing, your hobbies, and even your personal life.

The thing that most people struggle with however, is their working life. How do you enjoy that, particularly when you are doing it for somebody else?

Adam Baker at Man Vs Debt wrote a thought provoking post not long ago about Never Working Again. Since I’m a new father, it struck a chord for me. I suggest you go read it, but the general gist is that if you do something you love, then you will never feel like you have to work again.

There are lots of great examples of people that prove this point. Some of my favourites are Chris Guillebeau, who decided to find a way to pursue his desire for travel, Tim Ferriss, who has perfected ways to make work as efficient as possible and leave more time to do the things he loves, and even Darren Rowse, who discovered a love for the blogosphere and found ways to make an income from it while helping others.

You may think that you are not a super-entrepreneur like these people, but you don’t have to be. You just have to have the desire to make something happen for yourself.

Never Work Again

Most people travel through life resigned to the fact that they will have to work hard for the rest of their days. With luck they might start working somewhere they enjoy, they have few or no commitments and very little responsibility. s they become more experienced, their salary increases, they buy more stuff, and they take on more responsibility.

Their working life looks like this:

It’s usually at point A that people realize that things are not really going the way they were hoping. Smart people will look for a solution, while others will continue on their miserable way. As you are a smart person, you can find a solution. This does not necessarily mean quitting your job: what it means is finding a way to increase your working wealth. What we want to create is a working life that looks like this:

Work that gets better the more you do? Surely not! But it’s possible: people do it, and so can you. It is completely possible for you to do this simply by tweaking what you are doing right now. Here’s how:

• Find out what it is you want to do.
• Invest in yourself and make a conscious effort to succeed.
• Work towards your goal and enjoy the journey.
• Ensure you are looking after the other important areas of wealth in your life.

It really is that easy!

Even if you don’t want to, or can’t do this in your current job, you can use the skills you already have to help make this happen. Find an aspect of work or life that you most enjoy, or would like to do more of, and focus on it. This is entirely up to you: it could be turning a hobby into a career by teaching others what you know, or selling the things you make. Or like me, it could be finding a job that offers more than just a salary.

My desire was to travel. I wanted to see more of the world. Australia is a long way away from most other places and I couldn’t really afford extensive travel myself, so I found a job that required me to travel. Sure, I had to work while doing it, but I was being paid to go to new places and experience new things all over the world. As far as I was concerned, it was a perfect match!

Investing in yourself

Now that I have a young family, I have a new goal: finding more time to be at home. This has meant shifting my focus and working on ways that will enable me to spend less time at work and more time with my family. I really have to thank Tim Ferriss here, because his advice has been priceless. If you haven’t read the 4 Hour Work Week, then you really should.

This book has provided me with inspiration and ideas to pursue new avenues, and help design a life that I want to live. I still have more to do, but reading this book has been an investment in myself, which I think is one of the most important things you can do. For you, this might mean going to seminars or night classes, going back to school or just reading great books and online resources. The important part is to continue to learn. By developing your skills and knowledge, you will be able to create more opportunities to do the things you want.

You working life is just like the rest of your life: it’s a lot more fun if you have goals in mind. By making purposeful decisions and knowing where you want to go, you are going to enjoy the journey a lot more! Remember that successful people make sure they are looking after themselves and their loved ones as well. I don’t like getting too hung up on finances, but I do make sure that I make my money work for me so that, ultimately, I won’t have to work for it!

Once you get to point B in our ideal work graph, you should have created a situation where even fun work is no longer a necessity, but a choice you can make. At this point you can continue on your merry way, or find something new that you love to do, and go do that instead!

Shaun is not an accountant, financial planner or life coach, but he writes about wealth creation anyway! Shaun’s motto is “Make wealth, not money,” which fits quite nicely with where he wants to be in life. You can find out more by visiting his blog about Personal Wealth Creation.

This guest post is by Mark Riddix of BuylikeBuffett.

What is the greatest resource you have? Your first answer may be your house, car, bank account, or some other financial asset. While these possessions may have some monetary value; they pale in comparison to your greatest resource. You may be wondering what is this valuable gold mine that I am talking about?

The answer is YOU! You are the most valuable resource that you will ever possess. Your gifts, talents, skills, and abilities are priceless. They can all be used to improve your life and the lives of others. Your knowledge base is far more valuable than your home, 401(k), and investment balances combined.

Making money using your most valuable asset

You may not know it but you can create an income stream for yourself by marketing your most valuable commodity. Our economy is based on the timely provision of services and information. Companies are always looking for knowledgeable, confident, capable people Many companies would be willing to pay you for your expertise in a particular area.

That’s right! The skills that you have developed can be turned into income. You can take your knowledge base and monetize it by either finding full time employment in an area or renting yourself out. You can rent out the knowledge that you have through consulting and freelancing.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that I have been able to turn my passion for financial education into a nice income stream. It is the best of both worlds because I get to help improve the lives of others and have been able to improve my life as well.

Here are a few of the steps that helped me turn my greatest resource into an income stream.

1. Find your passion.

I was always passionate about investing and personal finance so I had the idea to start writing about these topics a few years ago. It was an area that interested me and I noticed that so many people struggled with financial issues.
I would often run into people that would ask me questions about the best places to put their money and how to start saving for their kid’s college fund. I figured that writing would be the best way to share my thoughts on many of these issues.

2. Create a plan.

My next step was to craft a strategy that would enable me to build name recognition and awareness of my skill set. My short term goal was not to make money but to get an opportunity to write.

I began sending out letters and emails to newspapers, magazines, and other publications hoping for the opportunity to write a monthly column free of charge. There were many non-responses before I was finally given the chance to write my own financial column for a local newspaper. This gave me the opportunity to gain exposure and further develop my skills as a writer.

3. Be willing to take a risk.

Once I had written a column for a year, I had the confidence and experience to believe that I could launch a successful blog. I started writing for my own blog and focused on churning out content day after day.

There were some rough patches in the beginning where I thought about giving up but I hung in there. I wrote guest posts, networked with other bloggers, and worked tirelessly to grow my readership. I began to develop a modest income stream by taking small freelancing gigs and earning advertising revenue from ad networks.

4. Stick with it.

After months and months of blogging, I leveraged my experience as a freelance writer into paid writing staff positions. I would write for a number of different sites during the week which gave me the opportunity to generate a few thousand dollars a month in writing income. I continued to earn ad revenue writing for my own site as well. My site had become popular enough that I started to sell ad space directly to advertisers myself.

5. Keep growing!

As time went on, I received more and more offers to write for larger sites. The pay rates increased and all of these jobs led to more recognition for my site. I kept seeking to learn as much as I could about the financial arena.

Over the past year, I was able to compile much of my personal finance knowledge into a book. This along with writing my blog has allowed me to turn my financial knowledge into monthly income. My goal is to hopefully one day grow my site as large as Darren Rowse has done with ProBlogger. Hey, you have to have goals, right?

How will you leverage your greatest resource?

You can take your knowledge base and monetize it as well! Everyone has some gift, talent, and skill that people could benefit from. For example, if you are a lifestyle expert, you can address day to day issues that people are having. If you are a tech junkie, you can help people deal with their IT questions. I know that I could definitely use help with that! I am sure that there are plenty of other areas as well.

Never underestimate the things that you are capable of achieving. Every bit of knowledge that you have and information that you learn is valuable to you and others as well. Your path to financial success may just lie in how effectively you utilize the greatest asset that you have which is yourself.

Mark Riddix publishes his own financial blog, BuylikeBuffett.com and has written a personal finance book titled Your Financial Playbook.

This guest post is by Joshua Noerr, of joshuanoerr.com.

Perform a Google search for “Increased Productivity” and you will be bombarded with thousands of tools, tips, tricks, and applications that will all claim to help you get more done. They will claim that using them will give you back X amount of hours in your week, and that you will have more free time to do what you want to do.

But what happens when all of that free time is spent managing all of the various productivity tools? This is what I like to call “shiny object syndrome.” You use something for a while, it either doesn’t work at all or works only marginally well, then you bounce to the next shiny new tool. I am going to make a bold statement, but I am very sure of it’s validity. Here it is:

Any system designed to help you be more productive is fundamentally flawed if it does not address your mindset.

The problem with productivity tools really is not in the tools themselves, but the mindset of the person using them. If you can put into practice a solid set of governing principles in your mind, it will not matter what tool you use. With the proper mindset, you can be the most productive individual on the planet with nothing more than a pencil and paper.

The following three points will help you install this mental framework.

1. Do less.

People think “productivity” is cramming more activities and tasks into an already busy day. This is not being productive; this is being busy.

The first key to having a sound productivity framework in place is understanding the difference between being productive and being busy. Generally, busy work will take a given period of time, and the results of that work will only last a short while.

Productive work will generally take the same amount of time, yet produce results for a longer period of time once set in motion.

Do not mistake this concept with prioritization. All prioritization does is assign a level of importance to your to-do list. You still end up doing all of the same mundane tasks. What I am encouraging you to do is discern the value of your tasks. If it is a low to no value task, why are you doing it at all?

2. Do the thing you don’t want to do.

Now that you have assigned value to the things you are doing, it’s time to start doing them!

Most people will save those tasks that, while valuable, are not fun to do. Procrastination is really just a fear of doing things that need to be done, but really aren’t that fun to do. Just because a task is valuable, does not necessarily mean it is going to be the highlight of your day.

If you are having trouble figuring out what to do first, I suggest you look at your list of tasks and find the one on there you want to do the very least. Chances are, this is the one that you need to attack first. The good news is you will know that your day will only get better because you took care of something that you didn’t want to do right at the beginning.

3. Learn to say “no.”

If you’re like me, you like to make other people happy. This is a wonderful problem to have, but it can still be a problem nonetheless.

You have to learn to tell people “no” without ruining the relationship, which is not always easy.

My work history has run the gambit from non-profit organizations to corporate management, and I have found the same technique to work in any arena. It continues to work today in my own businesses, especially when I am working with partners on something.

If I have a list of tasks or projects on my plate, and someone wants to add to it, I simply ask, “Okay, which of these previous projects would you like me to delay so that I can add this new one?” Usually, the answer is, “None.” If they would like me to postpone one of them, I have still accomplished my goal, because I have not immediately added anything to my work load.

Pleasing people around you is fine, but remember: if they expect a certain level of excellence from you, they will not be pleased with anything less, and you shouldn’t be either. You have to say no at the appropriate times.

Productivity is an art

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “A good artist never blames her brushes.” You cannot blame the “productivity tools” at your disposal for not working if you have never installed the software in your brain to make them work. Which of these three give you the most trouble? Did I leave out anything important? I would love to hear from you.

Joshua Noerr is a former combat sports competitor turned blogger. His mission in life is to simply change the world. You can keep up with his progress by visiting his blog on personal development, or subscribing to his RSS feed.

This post is by Kirsten, the polymath behind Multi-Passionate Productivity.

When I arrived in Atlanta to start grad school, I had no job and no connections in the city. What I did have was a grad program that had offered me work study funding, a supremely eclectic background and an interest in several very specific fields within public health. Within two weeks I had applied for ten jobs, interviewed for a couple, and was selected for my top choice, despite what many would call the handicap of having multiple passions on my resume.

This is an essential skill for a multi-passionate person, since—let’s face it—even if you’re entrepreneurially inclined, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself working for someone else at some point during your life. Since this theme came up a few times in the comments on my last Feel Gooder post, I thought I’d take the opportunity to elaborate on exactly how us renaissance men and women can turn our passions into an asset in the job market.

Emphasize broad, transferable skills.

My future employer wanted someone with experience in GIS and quantitative research, which I didn’t really have. But he also wanted someone who could redesign his website, which I definitely could do—and not only could I do it, I’d taught myself the skills I needed to do so. That ability to teach myself and learn quickly was what I emphasized in my cover letter, along with my web skills and the little bit of modeling experience that I did have.

Your future employer probably isn’t going to care that you spent three years learning to create poison dart frog habitats at the zoo, but they’ll be interested to know how well you were able to teach the school groups that came through the exhibits. They also might want to know about the aesthetic skills you picked up in designing the habitats, your ability to find unusual items for the displays, and the organization and budgeting skills that it took for all the habitat pieces to arrive at the same time and to the same place.

Those are the skills you want to highlight on your resume and cover letter—and trust me, your future employer is not going to look at a poison dart frog habitat design position and immediately think, “Oh, he must be good at teaching, organization, and aesthetics!”

Establish your creativity and ability to learn.

Make sure that your resume and cover letter shine with creativity. Your future employer is going to value your ability to make connections and come up with innovative ideas, so make sure they’re on full display. If your passions include web design, consider building a website to showcase exactly who you are. Susan from www.susanhiresaboss.com has a brilliant example of this tactic.

Your self-display also needs to make clear your ability to learn. Your future employer doesn’t expect you to necessarily come to the job with all the skills you need, but they will expect you to learn quickly. Showcase past jobs where you’ve had to pick up new skills, or examples of times where you’ve taught yourself something new.

Find something related, and move toward your passion.

Okay, I’ll admit that it’s not likely you’ll be hired for a job designing poison dart frog habitats without some relevant background experience designing for other amphibians. But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost! Start with a job at the zoo, perhaps as an intern teaching visitors about the exhibits. I can hear you now: “Isn’t that the definition of an entry-level job?” Well, sort of, but there are two key differences.

One, your entry level job as an intern gives you the opportunity to interact with the exhibit curators, maybe grab the opportunity to design an educational display or two, and generally learn all about and show your enthusiasm to people who may well be in a position to move you somewhere better suited to your passions. And two, your entry-level job is not permanent. You’ll be leveraging it to find something better suited within months. If you take an entry-level job as a ticket seller at the same zoo, you can bet you won’t have those sorts of opportunities for either learning or advancement.

In my case, I picked a position that would transition into what I was interested in learning about. I started by doing a month or so of web design work and now I’m working in the areas I initially wanted to learn about.

Be selective.

If you’re going to follow your passion, you don’t need to apply for every job you’re remotely qualified for. That’s just a recipe for wasted time and wasted passions. Start first by deciding which passions you want your job to focus on, then structure your searches through that lens. Apply for the positions you find the most interesting and that give you the greatest opportunities to grow and expand. Leave the rest for someone else.

Note that I’m assuming you have some income stream here. Clearly if you’re out of work you won’t be anywhere near as picky, though a lot of what I’ve said in this post can still apply to your situation. Also, take the job for what it is—an income source while you look for something else, not a job you’ll be working at for the rest of your life.

Customize your resume and cover letter.

This one’s a bit of a no-brainer, but nothing sounds as polished and genuine as the cover letter written specifically for your future employer. If you have a personal connection to your future employer, highlight it. Instead of taking a previously written letter and swapping out specific sentences, have a draft letter with bullet points that you build up each time you find a position that you’d love to fill. That way, the language will always be fresh and you’ll never have to worry about accidentally leaving references to Company X in your letter to Company Y. Your resume can be a boilerplate, but before you send it in, think about which of your skills and previous experiences are best suited for this position and move them to the top.

In my case, I’d spoken with a particular professor about six months before I applied to work in his research group. At the time, he recommended a class sequence which I subsequently signed up for, and I put that fact front and center in my cover letter. That was something I couldn’t have said for any other job I applied for in those few weeks, and it added an extra layer of customization to my cover letter.

Show your enthusiasm!

You’re interested in this job because you’re passionate about it, right? Let that show! Enthusiasm can carry you over the edge into a hire when your skills may or may not be up to par. Don’t be afraid to use words like love, passion, learn and opportunity. My enthusiasm has gotten me into jobs I really had no business filling.

I’ll be honest, my job now is pushing me in ways I didn’t anticipate. I’m having to rely heavily on my ability to learn quickly and make connections, and there are days where I wonder if I may finally have bitten off more than I can chew. On the whole, though, I’d much rather be struggling and learning in a job that I’m passionate about than sitting on the outside without a job, or with a job that I’ve mastered and grown bored with. My enthusiasm is still as strong as the day I sent in my cover letter, and my supervisor knows it.

So if you’re multi-passionate and looking to find a new job, take a look at your resume and cover letter writing habits in light of this post. If you’ve used any of these techniques (or others) in the past, I’d love for you to leave a comment and tell us about them. And of course, when you use these ideas to land yourself a job that you think is fascinating, come share your success!

Kirsten is the polymath behind Multi-Passionate Productivity, and she’s also a full time graduate student working with two research groups and running two and a half businesses in addition to MPP. Go here to check out her blog on productivity and organization for multi-passionate people, or join the crowd following the Interactive Novel project over at Written Insight.

This guest post is by Laura Townshend of BigGreyHorse.com.

When I was a little girl, all I wanted to do was ride horses and write. I took the obligatory ballet, gymnastics and piano lessons my mother enrolled me in. I enjoyed the activities, but my heart wasn’t completely in it. Horses won first place and writing came in as a close second.

My parents said that both were nothing more than hobbies.

That was the ’60s, when fathers worked outside the home and mothers managed households and raised children. My father was an entrepreneur who traveled the majority of the time. Somewhere deep within, his business and the way he approached customers moved me. At an early age, I formed distinct impressions about how to treat the people you do business with. These memories and feelings ended up serving me well later in life, and remain positive aspects today.

Needless to say, I followed the path my parents spoke of. “Get a degree and go into business. Your passions are what make you happy but work is work. When your work is done, you can play with your hobbies.” Even in the ’80s, when I came into the workforce, it was all about making money. There wasn’t too much talk about following your passions or doing what made your heart sing. The Me Generation said money was king, and if you worked hard enough, you would have lots of pretty, shiny things to be happy about.

The deal is this, however. Those pretty, shiny things won’t make you happy unless you feel good about yourself. True happiness is related to your spirituality. And good business keeps spirituality in the forefront.

What I’ve learned since then is that we’re living in different times. It’s not about me or you, it’s about us. How can I help you? How can I further your dreams while reaching my own?  How will we help each other? Good business people know that the way to attract and retain customers is through outreach. If making money is the only point, you won’t be in business for long.

Your spiritual base is the key. Religious affiliation doesn’t matter as much as how you relate to yourself and others. It’s what’s in your heart that matters. If you possess a kind heart, you won’t mind helping others succeed, too. Truly, there is no competition. We get what we manifest, albeit positive or negative.

If you’re in business to make a quick buck, you might achieve those results. On the long road, however, what happened? Did your customers come back for seconds? Were they pleased with the transaction? Did you walk away feeling good about what you did?

Today’s world grows smaller every second. This is an amazing time. I’m so glad to be part of the New Age, even if it frightens me somewhat. It seems that everyone has something to say—or maybe it’s that I can see what people think and feel due to instantaneous communications. Sometimes it’s also impossible to measure whether people are truly in need or just trying to scam.

Many years down the road, I write copy and ride my horse. I consider myself to be one of the lucky people who ended up doing exactly what she loved. Even better, I am paid to do what I love, which pays for my horse and the people and things in my life. It’s too late to wonder what would have happened had I followed my passions as I came into adulthood.

What matters is that I am here, now. The past seven years have been absolutely divine, and they keep getting better and better as I remain true to myself and my passions. I’m lucky to have saved those fabulous impressions my entrepreneurial father left upon me. I’m also lucky that I was brave enough to leave the nine to five and strike out on my own.

I couldn’t do it without the wonderful clients I’ve worked with, my family’s support, and some really amazing mentors and friends.

Stay true to your heart. Do the right thing. Build and grow your business. It?s easier than ever to work from home and be an entrepreneur. Just be sure you’re in it to help others, to give back, and to be a strong presence. Your business with flourish when you inject a healthy dose of spirituality into it.

Laura Townshend is a blogger and copywriter. You?ll find her hanging out at BigGreyHorse.com or taking a ride on Newspaper Taxi (the big, grey horse). Follow her @BigGreyHorse on Twitter.

This guest post is by Christy Smith, of ThinkBlot Communications.

Grown-up work is hard. When you’re a kid, you don’t hear stories of unemployment, disgruntled employees, profit and loss margins, or managing this elusive concept called work/life balance. You lived in a world that was limited only by the bounds of your imagination and in that world you could do or be anything.

Navigating the halls of the workplace today is a challenge. We are stressed out, overworked, and overwhelmed. Even if we recognize an opportunity to get ahead, it often requires efforts far outside our comfort zone to make an impact. We want to do it, but we don’t know how. We start making up excuses not to do it. But the next time you have a potential career-altering opportunity at your fingertips, try saying these four little words instead:

“I think I can.”

Repeat several times. Suddenly, we are transported back to our childhood when we listened with great anxiety wondering whether the Little Blue Engine would make it over the mountain in Watty Piper’s classic The Little Engine That Could . We begin to recreate our childhood belief that we can do whatever we set our minds too.

If you are unfamiliar with the tale, a train breaks down on route to the “other side of the mountain” carrying toys and goodies for the children who live there. The toys ask for help from three capable and experienced engines, but they are refused for various reasons. Finally they ask the Little Blue Engine, who, despite never having been over the mountain or being really big enough to tow anything, agrees to try. Because this is a children’s tale, we know that the Little Blue Engine succeeds, and the story has a happy ending.

As an adult, when I’m struggling to create my own momentum, I remember the Little Blue Engine. I not only remember her, I strive to BE her. Her story taught me several things about working towards my goals, and believing in myself.

Help those who ask for it

The toys asked for help from three other engines before the Little Blue Engine. The engines they asked all had experience going over the mountain, and were big enough and strong enough to pull the stranded train with little effort. But they chose not to. Why? Because for one reason or another, they were too busy, tired, or important to do so.

One of the easiest ways to stand out is by being willing answer the call when no one else will. Volunteering for responsibilities outside your comfort zone is great way to gain new skills and perspective without having to make a full-time commitment.

Be willing to take risks

The Little Blue Engine had no experience at all outside of her train yard. She had never been over the mountain. She wasn’t considered big enough to transport cargo. But when she was asked, she was willing to try because she understood that job was important. She took on the risk, and became a leader.

If you feeling overwhelmed, the first thing you may think is “I can’t do this”. We defeat ourselves before we’ve even started, or we look for the chance to get out as fast as possible. Stepping up and risking the unknown is scary. We don’t know what we don’t know. But we owe ourselves an optimistic start. Otherwise we run the risk of shutting down and never finding out what we “could” do.

Don’t give up

The Little Blue Engine was small, and climbing that mountain was hard work. But she knew that the happiness of all of those children on the other side of the mountain were dependent on her making it over the top. It was all downhill once she reached the peak. So she pushed herself to the limit.

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”

Because she focused on moving forward, she gained momentum. If she had hesitated for even a moment, she might not have made it.

We watch those around us closely to see how they handle adversity. We use their actions as our clues to how whether or not we can trust them. Don’t be afraid to show your passion and talk about what’s important to you on your journey up the mountain. Talking about what you are doing serves the dual purpose of keeping you excited and driving your forward progress.

Give yourself credit

The story ends with the Little Blue Engine saying “I thought I could!” You can sense her happiness, and the new-found confidence she feels from succeeding at something that she never thought possible.

I know every time that I make it to the end of a journey that pushed me outside my comfort zone, I feel elated. I celebrate, and then I reflect on all of things that made it possible. I want to be able to replicate that success over and over again.

There is something empowering about setting aside the limitations we’ve acquired in our journey to adulthood. When we give ourselves permission to think like a kid again, we open ourselves up to new opportunities.
This openness is necessary for our ability to grow and be our better selves. It is our challenge to recognize when fate gives us an opportunity to push ourselves and think about what’s next. Even if we aren’t sure that we can make it to the top of our mountain, it is important to start by saying “I think I can”. Give yourself the chance to know that you can do it.

Christy is the founder of ThinkBlot Communications and is a self-diagnosed Pollyanna. She is currently exploring the ways we can create positive self-dialogue to achieve our goals. She can be found at Twitter @thinkblotcom.