“Often it is the journey itself,
not the destination
that is the real point of setting forth.”
SHARON SALZBERG
If you don’t love the work you’re doing now, or you can’t imagine how your current job can lead to your dream career, the following extract is a collection of insights designed to soothe your soul…
(Plus a few tips that might save you some unnecessary detours and/or confusion.)
Hi, I’m Danielle
Finding your Career Sweet Spot
NOTES FOR THE JOURNEY
THE DHARMA JOURNEY CAREER BLEND
To support you in Your Creative Dharma journey, here are a few things I learned about the multi-faceted nature of this dharma vision and how it can play out.
As you continue in your journey towards your ideal career, you may find – as I did – that joyful expression, purpose and success can be found in a blend of work ventures.
I originally assumed that my dharma would be one perfect job, one focused career that ticked all the boxes on my wish list.
Instead, I discovered that I can feel as though I’m living in dharma – in my sweet spot dharma zone of brilliance – when I have a range of work projects.
I learned that it’s this inner sense of alignment with the work, not the particular career or project, that brought the benefits I was seeking.
This may or may not be the case for you, but as you’re exploring your own preferences and assessing your results, you may find some peace in the idea that there needn’t be One Perfect Answer.
• • •
Many Perfect Answers…
For example, you may find that your vision is advanced by setting up a series of passive income streams or being involved in multiple ventures.
Or you may discover that the key to your creative freedom is simplifying your lifestyle and reducing your expenses.
Or you may have two or three diverse career strands that somehow compliment each other and create a richly varied work life that you love.
It may be a blend of some or all of these options, or other variations that combine to create the ideal conditions for you and your dharma.
If this idea of a career or work blend appeals to you or feels like it could be an option, I highly recommend A Life At Work by Thomas Moore.
Or if you’d prefer a more modern take on the idea of a Portfolio Career, The Multi-Hyphen Method by Emma Gannon is an interesting take on the new world of work and its potential freedoms and variety.
So, as you’re planning, designing and refining your criteria and preferences, keep your mind open to a range of solutions that may satisfy your quest.
And each aspect may bring its own benefits.
For example, you may find meaning from one venture, expression from another and commercial success from another.
There’s no rule that all the happy benefits of being in your sweet spot need to come from only one source.
What matters is the coming together of all the elements you need to feel the alignment of being in dharma.
This blend may also shift and alter ratios over time, as you grow out of one and into another, as the marketplace changes, or as your life phases ebb and flow.
Being open to this multi-passionate version of Your Creative Dharma may help you discover the combination of elements or career strands that come together in a blend or mix that suits you perfectly.
“Your path is your own,
cherish it.”
MARC ZEGANS
Finding your Career Sweet Spot:
3 TIPS FOR THE TRANSITIONAL PHASE
Your Creative Dharma is a vision.
It’s an imagined scenario – designed by you, fuelled by purpose and desire, guided by your unique talents and delights.
And as much as we’ve explored our power and potential, as much as we believe there is a dharma zone sweet spot for each of us – this mighty vision is unlikely to manifest overnight.
And this may be no bad thing, as there is much wisdom and joy to be found in the journey towards a destination – what author Chris Guillebeau calls The Happiness of Pursuit.
But in the interest of enjoying the pursuit as much as possible, I’d like to offer you a few insights from my own journey, that might help you to more happily manage the transition from where you are now to a stronger sense of living in dharma.
• • •
1. Aim for degrees of alignment
First of all, Your Creative Dharma is an evolutionary direction rather than a box to tick.
As we explored in the 5 Fs Formula – there is no ‘There’, there is no finish line.
Although we are aiming for a sweet spot of ultimate alignment, this is not a fixed condition but more of a fluid way of living.
Your Creative Dharma is a certain quality of life, and as we know, life is not static but an endless forward flow.
So, our intention is simply to aim for increasing degrees of alignment, increased feelings that we are where we want to be, doing the work we want to do and making the impact and income we most desire to make.
It may be helpful to view Your Creative Dharma vision as like a compass for the journey, a guiding light to help you direct your choices and cultivate your ideal creative conditions.
• • •
2. Allow space and time to blossom
Secondly, this journey, this evolution may take time.
It needn’t be decades before you can enjoy that feeling of accomplishment, but equally, it may take some quality time, development and reiterations before you feel you are where you want to be.
So, be prepared for a transitional phase – as you begin to move dharma-wards, but before you feel that you are fully living your dream in all its glorious details.
As wise sages have advised – give time, time.
As well as time, you may also need to give your idea and vision space to blossom and progress at its own pace.
You may need to experiment.
There are a number of possible routes to your optimum creative career, there are many options to be explored and part of this work – part of the fun! – is to experiment, to explore and to tune in to see which options are the ones for you.
This may mean that you need to live with conditions that are less than ideal for longer than you’d like, but know that this is a means to more freedom, fulfilment and success in the long run.
So, take heart if you have to stay in a job that’s not in your blueprint, or do work that’s less than your Joyful Expression.
Or if you’re cultivating your dream career but it’s not yet reached the level where it supports you fully, know that this is not failure, it simply means there is more journeying to do.
If you keep in mind your vision and view your current setting as a means to achieving that vision, it can help to view this transitional phase in a more positive light.
• • •
3. Enjoy the journey
Finally, keep in mind that things can and will change.
Not only do we all have a richly varied version of this vision of dharma, but for each us, the details and criteria will change and evolve over time – as we grow and learn and discover.
Some things will take off, others won’t.
Your obligations and responsibilities will shift and change over time, which will impact the consequences of your choices or the pace of your changes.
There may be a times when you feel more creative because you feel financially secure.
Then, other times, you might find that you have a new courage for your creative career vision and you feel called to take a leap of faith.
Tuning in to where you are along the way is as vital a skill as knowing where you want to go.
So, be kind to yourself, cultivate patience, make friends with uncertainty and feel free to try new things and accept that some may not be for you.
Remember that there is value in the journey, and there is power in enjoying the now.
Your vision is uniquely yours – it’s for you, and only you.
It’s not going anywhere.
It will wait for you.
• • •
“Success is a journey, not a destination.
True success…
is the experience of the miraculous,
it is the unfolding of the divinity within us.”
DEEPAK CHOPRA
Making peace with uncertainty
I hope these insights will bring you some comfort, if you find that the Transitional Phase is longer or more confusing than you’d like.
And don’t forget – you do have some influence in how you experience even the bumpy parts of the journey.
Remember your belief work from Week 2 of the course and get your mind on board!
You can ask and keep asking;
What would it take to enjoy the journey?
How can I make the most of this transitional phase?
This phase actually has the potential for excitement, surprises, the magic of imagination and the delight of anticipation.
It’s the part where anything is possible!
Deepak Chopra cites uncertainty as ‘the fertile ground of pure creativity and freedom’.
So, even though there may be many unanswered questions – in the spirit of enjoying the journey, is it possible to allow the uncertainty, to not need to know all the answers before you can enjoy the ride?
This is also where our work on faith and belief plays a part.
It’s much easier to relax and trust and enjoy the journey when you have a strong faith in life’s support and your own abilities to create what you want.
When you know life loves you and wants you to win, when you feel powerful and capable, you feel less need to have all the answers before you can relax, trust and enjoy the process of creating.
Your Creative Dharma is a creative process, after all.
And as a joy-seeking, life-loving soul-driven powerful cocreator, enjoying the process of creating is really what it’s all about.
So, I invite you to intend and desire Your Creative Dharma with all your heart AND do what you can to enjoy your life and your work along the way.
And to help you know that I am extremely familiar with this stage of the process, here is a snippet from my journal, as my higher mind attempts to comfort the more disgruntled inner voice of doubt and frustration;
“Dissatisfaction leads to refinement.
When you feel that divine discontent, that urge for something more, better, perfect – you look for ways to create it.
So don’t be disheartened by the gap between you and your imagined greatness – be inspired.
Hear its call and respond with enthusiasm.
It won’t always be easy, it won’t always feel likely or even possible, but fear not – it will wait for you.
It knows you will inch towards it on your better days, those times when the whispers of your potential resonate more loudly than the sighs of an anguished heart.
Like a patient, loving siren, it knows you are making your way towards it, towards home.
It knows you can reach it, will reach it at last.”
I hope you find these notes helpful in your quest for that life-enhancing dharma zone sweet spot.
And if you’d like more support and guidance for discovering your ideal career, I designed Your Creative Dharma just for you.
More details below!
This post is a free sample from
Your Creative Dharma online course
A 5-WEEK ONLINE COURSE
TO HELP YOU DISCOVER YOUR SWEET SPOT
OF CREATIVE FULFILMENT, COMMERCIAL SUCCESS & LIFE PURPOSE.
YOUR CREATIVE DHARMA
EXPRESSION • PURPOSE • SUCCESS • JOY
by
ABOUT DANIELLE
Hi! I'm Danielle Raine.
I'm a writer, designer + creativity coach.
I've been studying inspiration and the creative process for over 2 decades. (#obssessed)
And now I believe 1000% that healthy, joyful creative expression is essential for true happiness and success.
But, as any creative knows - it's not always an easy path.
So my online courses are where I share what I've learned about finding more flow, more fulfilment and more joy along the way.
You can read the story behind Your Creative Dharma here.
