Imagine that it was commonplace for children to be exposed to a myriad of career opportunities relating to each new discovery of something interesting? Imagine growing up in a culture where we naturally make money doing something we really love?
Imagine a teenager enrolling in Finding Your Genius 101 where an entire year is spent discovering their true talents? Then enrolling in Working Your Genius 202 (or Your Genius Working for You:-) where they are given options about how to use those talents to make money as an adult?
Imagine millions of adults loving what they do each day instead of dreading their j.o.b.s, where the thing they look forward to the most is Hump Day and TGIF?
In the past few decades, more and more people have considered the concept of actually enjoying what they do to make a living: to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. Today, this idea of fulfilling a mission or self-purpose is driving one of the biggest industries in the U.S. ~ personal development. We’ve all seen the ads for the following seminars:
“Make Money Doing What You Love”
“Passion and Profits”
“Loving What You Do”
“Do What You Love The Money Will Follow”
“The Money Follows Your Passion”
On and on it goes. People are drawn by the thousands to seminars, books, classes, speakers and online programs because they are sick of what they are doing, working day after miserable day knowing in their guts that there has to be a better way.
So, what if we started empowering our kids with this ‘better way’ and prevented them from falling into the TGIF habit of numbing their misery at the end of each work week? And, what if YOU were the one doing the empowering?
Hold on to that question as I take you back in time.
In the beginning, there was a cave. A place to get out of the weather, protect that which you claimed as yours: children, cooking implements, weapons, dried meats, herbs, and probably a whole lot more.
With each rising sun came a brand new day of hunting, cooking, eating, caring for the ‘gang’ which often meant keeping them from being eaten and just plain surviving.
At least this is the vision I conjure up when I think about my cave-dwelling ancestors. Each person had ‘a job’ to do. It was either gender based (hunting, killing, protecting for most men or cooking, cleaning, child-tending for most women) or based on one’s natural talents (healing, herb, weapon crafting, bowl weaving, carving).
There were no paychecks per se, simply the right to be part of the whole, which would then, in turn, provide and protect your well-being as a member of that whole.
As time went by, society became more mobile and people more independent. We created teepees, tents, lean-tos, cabins, castles with moats, mobile homes (in case you decide you like your house but not your neighbors) and finally, the ultimate mobile dwelling, the motor home where you just hitch up your portable house and live where ever you wish.
Things were good. Only one problem: as the ability to move about the planet became easier, the ability to keep doing our ‘jobs’ became a wee-bit more challenging.
Since we were no longer part of ‘the gang’ we often had to take on work simply because we needed the money. After all, basic survival (cave or no cave) generally dictates that food be somewhere in the picture.
As we became more and more mobile, we also became more and more specialized in what we did for a living. Somewhere in there, someone decided we should choose what we want to ‘be’ when we grow up. Once we got that figured out (if we ever did), we simply go to college to learn how to ‘be’ that thing, graduate, get a job, work until we can hopefully retire (also made up) and there we had it: A life well done.
YUK!
Antidote: the idea that work can be an expression of our passion or this thing we’ve labeled ‘our purpose for living.’ Now that we’ve convinced ourselves, or had the outside world convince us, that we can actually be happy each day, living our dreams, fulfilling our purpose, using our passion and natural talents, filling a void of some sort, making the world, and people’s experience of it, a better place, where do we go to figure it all out?
Where do we turn to:
“Make Money Doing What We Love?”
“Turn our Passion into Profits?”
“Love What We Do?”
“Do What We Love and Have the Money Follow?”
“Have Money Follow Our Passion?”
Well, that is the proverbial $64,000,000 question.
The answer? A few more questions!
What is my natural genius?
Howard Garner, who wrote Multiple Intelligences, understood long time ago that everyone had a genius. He labeled them spatial-visual, linguistic, interpersonal, musical, naturalist, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and logical-mathematical. Problem is, we’re not routinely tested for all of these geniuses in school so we grow up thinking we are dumb, not talented, or worse.
What are the things I love to do?
Think about the activities you do where you lose track of time, forget to drink water or go to the bathroom; activities where you are so absorbed you lose yourself in them. These are the things you’ll first want to explore in terms of creating a life where work won’t seem like ‘work’ at all!
What are my talents?
In other words, what are you really good at? What could you become an expert at? What would you love to be paid to learn?
What would give me a sense of purpose?
What would cause you to jump out of bed each morning, excited to see what the day had in store for you? What are ways you would like to help others or help your community, or the planet?
When we’ve answered these questions, we can begin to explore our natural genius, the things we love to do, our talents and our purpose (and, by the way, there isn’t just one) and turn these into making not just a living, but a LIFE.
Now, let’s go back to empowering children to find that ‘better’ way.
That class they need, along with Finding Your Genius 101 and Working Your Genius 202 is Financial Literacy for Life, an ongoing course of study ideally beginning somewhere around the 5th grade (but available for everyone at any time.)
In addition to encouraging children to grow into their natural genius, to do more of what they love to do (aside from texting all day!), helping them to develop their emerging talents and identify passion and purpose, financial intelligence gives them the tools to live in the world successfully.
Imagine the difference this would make in each child’s life, in their future, in their choices, in their results, in their families, and in their relationships.
Imagine that YOU were responsible for making this happen for every child you possibly could?
Imagine using YOUR natural genius, those things YOU love to do, YOUR talents and expertise, YOUR purpose(s) in order to make a difference in someone’s life, young or not so young? It would be “personal development” at its finest.
Financial literacy for kids and adults. It’s our genius, our reason for getting up in the morning ~ quite simply, what we love to do here at Creative Wealth!
If it’s yours, come join us in living a life with passion, and beyond. If it’s something else, we completely support you on your quest to never work another day in your life as well.
Elisabeth Donati is the owner of Creative Wealth Intl., LLC and creator of Camp Millionaire, a unique financial intelligence program for youth. She is an expert in teaching the basic financial principles everyone needs in a way that is engaging, empowering and fun.
She has a passion for empowering women in her Creative Wealth for Women program and is the author of The Ultimate Allowance and the weekly ezine, Financial Wisdom with a TWI$T.
