TED Talk: How to Find Work You Love

By Allison Johnson
Blog Content Contributor

This week I watched a TED Talk of Scott Dinsmore explaining the process of finding the work you love. In a day and age where finding work is hard, a lot of people may settle for work that they do not enjoy. I think a lot of settling has to do with young adults not knowing what they want to do with their lives. If you feel like you are not happy with where you are in your career, I highly suggest watching this video.

Did you know over 80% of people don’t enjoy their work? I find that sad, considering we probably spend most our lives working. You might think you do not have an innate talent, but there has to be something out there for you that you can make a difference in.

When I was a young girl, I had a passion for art. I painted my favorite band’s album covers after a trip to Waterloo, and drew just about all of my favorite TV characters when I watched Disney. At school on Fridays, we got to use our journals in English for a free write. No topic. I loved it. I got to write stories about things I thought was funny or interesting. I would then draw a story to match a scene description. My teachers enjoyed them. One time, I got in trouble for talking while the teacher was, she asked me to copy down a page of the history book for punishment. I was ballsy for some reason that day, and asked, “Can I draw a picture of the lesson instead?” My teacher smiled, and said sure. So, there I sat, drawing a picture of the constitutional convention.

My teacher told me thank you when I was finished. She loved the drawing. I knew that “thank you” meant more than me just completing the assignment and shutting up, but thanks for always sharing your art with me. Moments like that, where my teachers, and even my parents thanked me for sharing my creative side with them meant a lot to me. Since 5th grade, I knew I wanted to write and bring stories to life.

I know not everyone knows what they want to major in when they are ten, but it is all making sense to me now. As you know, I write for KTSW. I write blogs, and scripts for the production department. From then, I knew what my strengths were, and to me, that is storytelling. I hope you find your strengths, because this is your first step to finding the work you love.

Dinsmore’s next step is, “What is our framework or our hierarchy from making decisions? Is it that you care about the people, our family, health? Is it achievements, success, all these different things? We have to figure out what it is to make these decisions. We know what our soul is made of so that we don’t go selling at decent cost, we don’t give a shit of help.”

His third step is our experiences. There are the good and the bad. We should be thankful for both though. The good helps us find our likes, and the bad experiences help us figure out what we do not like. If you do not experience the bad ones how are you going to find your purpose? Figuring out your likes and dislikes is important!

Some more advice Dinsmore gives is to change your surroundings if you need to. “Environment is everything.” I have to surround myself with people who see the vision I see. Look at the people Steve Jobs surrounded himself with. You think if he hung out with people who did not care about technology innovation you would be reading this from your iPhone? Probably not. Not only do I think that this applies to people, but also your literal location. Maybe you are a great photographer, but feel like no one is paying attention; chances are, your small town has five popular photographers already. Move. Make your dreams come true.

This is one of the best Ted Talks I have ever watched, and I know so many people from all ages can take a lot from this. Dinsmore gives tons of great points and advice throughout the entire video. Much more then I could ever mention in here. I could write and talk about this all day, but you should listen to or read Scott Dinsmore’s powerful words. Unfortunately, Scott Dinsmore passed away. His passion was to help people live their legacy, through Live Your Legend. So please watch the video, so his legacy can live on through words that could change your life.

Featured image via TED Talk.