What is a persons life’s work? It’s the body of work that you have accomplished and the legacy that is created from that work. To me, it is a creative self-expression of yourself through your career. The biggest factor of your life’s work is it revolves around something you love to do and that takes advantage of your natural born talents and gifts.

Here are a few benchmarks that determine if you’re on the right track concerning your life’s work.

Dedication

How dedicated are you to your career? Can you take it or leave it? If another opportunity came along would you jump at it?

Love

Do you love your work? Is it something you can’t stop thinking about and love to share with others?

Joy

Do you feel joy when you work? Is this something you would do even if you weren’t paid for it?

Contribution

Are you making a contribution that changes lives for the better? Do you know who you are meant to serve?

What is your vision for your career? Does it have meaning and value or are you working day by day making ends meet so you can achieve mostly personal goals?

If you believe that your life should have meaning in both your career and personal life it’s time to start planning your life’s work.

This plan isn’t set in stone. It’s something that will help guide you and give you focus. It will ensure that your life and the work you do will have a deeper meaning and will have a lasting, long-term effect on the world.

And don’t worry about how old you are and that you haven’t even begun! Some of the greatest accomplishments have been contributed by people later in their life.

What can you do if you are not ready yet to launch a business aimed at fulfilling your life’s work? 

Maybe you are in one of the following situations: 

• You don’t know what your life’s mission (purpose) is yet.
• You are committed to another job for a certain time that doesn’t relate to your life’s mission.
• You are not financial able to start your own business or current job.
• You already own a business that doesn’t relate to your core mission but are financial dependent on the income it produces.
• You have small children at home and don’t have as much time as you would like to devote to your life’s work.

The best thing is to start where you are now. Here’s a few ideas to get you moving in the right direction. Most of these ideas are low or no cost and won’t take a tremendous amount of time. 

• Know what your life mission is and outline ways to achieve that mission. This can take a bit of soul searching and/or coaching to discover.
• Downscale your lifestyle so you can begin sooner. Analyze how you can cut back and save money.
• Take classes and/or become certified in your profession,
• Start a blog about the topic you are interested in making a difference. Plan on writing at least once a week and start getting your blog some exposure.
• If you haven’t yet, start a Twitter account and Facebook account in your name. Post information, articles and promote your blog posts relating to your life’s work. This will establish you as expert in your given topic.
• Begin networking with people in your field.

The most important thing is to get started. 

“The maxim ‘Nothing but perfection’ may be spelled ‘Paralysis.” Winston Churchill 

Your business may evolve into something you never imagined but unless you start somewhere, with a goal in mind, nothing will ever happen. Make a commitment to create the career/business of your dreams. Considering how many years are spent working wouldn’t you love to do something you are proud of and love doing? 

Do you have any other ideas on what you can do to get started? Please leave a comment below.