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By Craig Nathanson

How do you define your work? Do you look to your work to define meaning and joy or just to collect a paycheck? Each carries a different result. Those who seek meaning and joy in their work tend to choose carefully what they do; they know what they do helps determine who they are. For others who work just for the money, there is little expectation of meaning or joyjust as long as the paycheck rolls in. Career vs. vocational passion In my work, I am often asked, What is the difference between Career and Vocational Passion?

Jobs are just an exchange of services for money.

Careers are the same but with a better title. Sadly, for many people, jobs=careers=retirement=death. Can you avoid death? Probably not, but you can get more enjoyment and happiness out of each and every day before you get there.
Vocational passion means having a lifes work that you can do for your whole lifetime without the need to ever retire. Retirement is only for people who dont like what they do! Want a quick path to death? Retire and wait.

I recently took some time to look back on my life and my decisions – back in October I turned 40 – and found that I didn’t take the time to seek my inner voice and listen to it. I spent the past 15 years as an executive building businesses for other people. All of my waking time was spent thinking about how I could make their business better – leaving little time for me to think about what I was doing, whether it made sense for me in the long run, or the effect my decisions would have on my family.

Turning 40 woke me up to the fact that what I thought was security – having someone else cover my health insurance and pay my wage – was actually giving my life away cheap. So I decided to leave my cushy corporate gig and start a business that I could build for me and my family. Something that would pay me back in greater ways than any employer would – and I’m talking way beyond money to deeper relationships with my family and friends and more freedom to explore and invest my time in those things are truly exciting to me.

The journey here has been eased by the fact that my wife is my partner in this new business. By being involved from day one she has been able to allay her insecurities and be truly supportive. That insecurity comes up occasisonally but it short lived as we both see the invoices getting paid and the money going into the bank. The time we get to spend together now has brought our relationship to a new level.

Right before turning 30, I got out of a very, very bad abusive marriage with my beautiful son. When I turned 40, I was happy sort of fit and just coasting, but shortly after went into fitness in a HUGE way. What I assumed was a fit life changed when I got heavily into body-building and eating to maintain that life so…by the age of 42, I was in the best “photo” shape of my life.

Then, after a few years of maintaining that lifestyle I went into (in addition to my business life of being an economic-analyst) getting my personal training certification, Spinning Certification and ACE fitness Trainer certification.

I eventually left my day job (the big-bucks job) to start my own in-home personal training business that I’ve been doing for the last four years. I’m happier, poorer, but feel good every night I go to sleep because, unlike my last career, I have the opportunity to make a difference…not matter how small or large…in someone’s life, instead of just impacting the bottom line of a corporation.