In my last post, Viva Las Vegas and The Winds of Change, I dropped some really heavy stuff on you all. I made some pretty powerful proclamations of wanting to change my life in a number of areas and plan on becoming a better person all the way around.

Over the past year of writing on this blog, I always had it in my mind that once I quit my job, things would be great. If only I could end my grind, life would be wonderful. After thinking on this at great lengths, it just isn’t true.

Life will not be significantly better for me because I am not a happy person. And while my job makes me very unhappy, it’s just one area of an unfulfilling life.

Taking on such drastic life changes is going to be ridiculously challenging and my wife is already questioning how it’s going to be possible. The thing is, it’s not an option for me anymore. If I leave it optional, I will never do anything about it and end up living the life I fear most. And that life is one of averageness, mediocrity, and struggle.

My hope is that by sharing my journey to better myself and create the life I deserve, I will inspire others to do the same. I hope you will take what you can from my experiences and create your own ideal life.

Improving My Life One Step At A Time

Trying to change all areas of my life simultaneously is unrealistic. I can barely manage to write two blog posts each week, let alone change my entire life! Doesn’t matter though. If I am going to do what I say, then I need to change what I do every day.

My ultimate goal is to improve upon the 5 most important areas in my life, which are:

  • My family
  • My health
  • My personal relationships
  • My finances
  • My faith

Again, trying to tackle all of these things at once would be insanity.SO instead of jumping into all of them right this second, I will start by focusing on one right now.

All of these areas are suffering greatly in my life and there are many underlying reasons for my unhappiness. But at the forefront, it’s my job and boss. It’s the worst case scenario for me, which is can be described as:

  • Incredibly tedious work
  • Excruciatingly boring and monotonous
  • Having a dominant and overbearing boss
  • It holds zero interest for me
  • The pay is just average (low for my field) and I receive no health or retirement benefits, thus reducing my gross compensation

While I do plan on working on improving my life each and every day, I will be focusing my energy on replacing my income through my (soon to be) online businesses.

I feel as though this is a vital first step in the process of change.

I’ll be sharing exactly what I am doing and you’ll get a birds eye view of what is working and what isn’t. I have never made any claims to be an expert in any of this and I will be learning as I go. Hopefully you will as well.

Finding My Strengths

If I am ever going to replace my salary of $65,000 per year and quit my job, I need to start creating revenues. In order to produce revenue, I need a product or service. In order to sell a product or service, I need to know what I want to sell. And in order to know what I want to sell, I need to know what I will be good at doing.

So I’ve taken the advice of Penelope who said “how can you say that you have a goal for what you want to do when you don’t even know what your strongest skills are”? And while I wasn’t crazy about how she chose to voice this, she did have an excellent point.

How can I be great at something and use my God given strengths if I don’t have any idea what they are?

So taking her advice, I picked up a copy of Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type by Paul Tieger. And yes that’s an affiliate link. Let’s see, at .40¢ per sale, I need 10,000 people buy this book to earn a cool $4,000. And if I can do this each and every month, I think I’ll be ok!

This book is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and I’ve actually taken the test several times in the past. When I read this book this past week, it just confirmed what I already knew, I’m an ISFJ.

In the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, a similar test, I’m known as a Protector Guardian.

I had always thought that this information was just for people who want to work a job and have a career. I was going to be an entrepreneur, so I didn’t need this, right? Wrong. Knowing our strengths is a HUGE advantage to anything we do, especially in business.

Just so you know a little bit more about me and my personality (in case you haven’t figured it out already), “ISFJs are characterized above all by their desire to serve others. Their need to be needed is so strong that standard give-and-take relationships are often deeply unsatisfying to them.”

This could explain why I am so hesitant to take money and often feel like it’s somehow wrong to want any sort of reward for doing work, even work I know is very valuable.

According to the experts, here is the environment a typical ISFJ would thrive in:

  1. Able to express their compassion and devotion by working hard behind the scenes, but also having my contributions recognized and appreciated.
  2. Let’s them focus all their energy on a single project or person.
  3. Working on projects that have a tangible end result.
  4. Having private work space so they can concentrate for extended periods of time with minimum interruption.
  5. Works one-on-one with others or with people who share their personal values and beliefs.
  6. Being highly organized and efficient.
  7. Needs adequate time to prepare for meetings and/or presentations.
  8. Works in a traditional, stable, and orderly environment where results are practical and service oriented.
  9. Allows work on tangible projects that help others.
  10. Lets them use their strong ability to remember facts and details.

Well, I’ll tell you, this is just about spot on. Other than a few minor things, I would say this fits me like a glove.

I Don’t Want Another Job, But If I Did….

So what kind of occupations are generally preferred by the ISFJ?

What I would be good at and probably enjoy:

  • Physical therapist
  • Nutritionist
  • Occupational therapist
  • Personal counselor
  • Social worker
  • Athletic trainer
  • Retail owner

It’s funny because I have actually looked into each one of these fields at some point in my life. I was especially interested in physical therapy but when I realized the lengthy education required to become certified, it wasn’t plausible at all.

Knowing what I like about each one of these is going to help me in my business. It will allow me to create the best model for me and one that will benefit others the most.

Jobs I would be good at but would hate:

  • Medical assistant
  • Optician
  • Family physician
  • Genealogist
  • Historian
  • Funeral director (that sucks)
  • Paralegal

So as you can see, just because our personality types tell us what we would probably excel at, it means very little in terms of what would be a good fit. This is where the work comes in. We need to sort through this information to extract the most valuable pieces and build our dream around them.

According to Do What You Love, the secret of success for an ISFJ is to:

  • Speak up
  • Consider possibilities that don’t already exist
  • Try to be more spontaneous and flexible

The first point has cost me a lot in my life. I’ve taken a back seat too many times and missed out on opportunities that would have been very beneficial to me.

The second has cost me in my possible businesses. Being a one dimensional thinker has kept me in a “safe” work environment and prevented me from experiencing many new things.

The third has cost me more than you know in my marriage. Enough said 🙂

How I Can Use My Strengths To Build A Business I Love

For me, I love business and entrepreneurship. Sadly, this isn’t on the list, but that’s ok. I might not be a natural, but I have many qualities that will play well into it.

By learning what I’m naturally good at, I am able to see for example, that I would make a great teacher or counselor. This works very well for an online coaching business and something I will consider when I have more credibility.

I can also parlay my affinity for helping and teaching others into an in depth personal coaching workshop or course.

My desire to express my feelings mixed with my interest in solitude would make for a freelance writing side business.

My interest and ability to work with statistics, numbers, and be highly organized could work very well with the niche/affiliate site model as well.

As you can see, knowing your personality type is very helpful in many ways. So when you find yours, figure out what your greatest strengths and weaknesses are and what you truly enjoy. Then you can design your business to suit your ideal life.

So What’s Next?

This is just the beginning for me and I have many ideas to share with you. You can expect to see a lot of interesting things coming your way in the near future.

I’ve done some further reading as well and made some discoveries about my passions, which I will be sharing in my next post. I will also be posting my goals (and sending them to Penelope!) and I really hope to get your honest feedback on them.

I’ve become quite interested in personality types and how they relate to people’s lives and businesses now that I’ve read this book. I’d love to hear what your type is and what you do for a living. You can take the test here, it’s totally free, and takes about 15 minutes.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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