Superheroes know their superpowers. Do you? Sometimes our powers come so naturally to us that we don't event recognize them ourselves. So here's a fun survey to send to friends to get some 360-degree feedback and discover your superpowers and how they can be used professionally.
Warning: Side effects include increased happiness, greater self-awareness, & stronger friendships.

STEP 1. Cut, copy, paste, & edit the email template below.

Subject: Looking for some quick peer support...

Hey,

I hope all is well.

As you know, I'm always looking to grow and I value what you think about me. I found this fun survey for friends to give feedback to one another regarding their strengths, passions, and careers. I'm only sending it to 5 people and one of them is you!

Can you please take 5 minutes to complete the survey at the link below? It's only 4 questions. Your answers will help me tremendously as I consider what's next for me. The more specific your answers, the better.

http://jullien.wufoo.com/forms/superhero-survey-by-peersupportme/

I'll share with you what I discover about myself.

Sincerely,

STEP 2. Select 5 close friends to e-mail it to.

Above are examples of the types of people you may want to send the email to. Make sure you choose 5 or more people you think will be honest with you and have demonstrated commitment to your success in the past.

Today I spoke to a group of about 40 undergrads at the University of Michigan on the topic of Purpose + Passions + Profession: How to align your life, work, & goals. The event was sponsored by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Women's Initiative. Feel free to watch the speech at the link below and see pictures here.

Get out a notepad and pen and
Watch Now!

For most people passions are part-time instead of full-time. They are things you do on the weekend if you get around to them. A lot of people drive to work park in the parking lot and leave half of who they are in the passenger seat while dragging the other half of themselves into the office.

What if could align our passions and profession? I think it's possible and here's why.

One day I met a woman who worked in HR at Google. I asked her if this is what she was passionate about and she responded "I really love archaeology." As our conversation progressed we realized that she was still pursuing archaelogy. Instead of digging for fossils and artifacts she was digging through talent pool of resumes to find hidden gems in people.

Passions are action-based where the interest are topic-based. Archaeology was her interest, but digging and finding were her passions. The same framework may apply for someone who has manifested their passion for strategizing through playing chess. Someone like that may want to explore a career in consulting.

Believing that our passions and professions can and should be aligned would revolutionize the career exploration process and hiring process. Instead of hiring based on Grade Point Averages, employers would hire based on Great Passion Advantage. And instead of searching for jobs by industry, company, or title, we would search for jobs by actions.

Here is a simple process to do this for yourself:

1. List five things that interest you now and as a child.
   Ex. baseball
   
   
2. For each entry write down all of the actions associated with that interest.
   Ex. playing baseball, coaching baseball, collecting baseball cards, watching baseball
   
   
3. Circle all of the action verbs that excite you.
   Ex. coaching, collecting
   
   
4. Identify career opportunities that would allow you to do those actions regularly.
   Ex. life coach, executive coach, sports coach, IRS (collect money), forensics (collect evidence)

Do you believe in yourself enough to be your own disciple?

When I hear the word "discipline", I immediately think of "disciple" and disciple connotes follower of or believer in someone else. So when I hear the word "self-discipline" I think of "disciple of self" or follower or believer in self.

So when I ask myself 'Why do some people have self-discipline and others don't?' it really comes down to 'How deeply do people believe in themselves, their own dreams, their own visions?" If people believed in themselves, self-discipline wouldn't be an issue. Our commitments to our dreams, visions, and highest selves would be our motivation. The intrinsic incentive of manifesting our dreams would make rules, schedules, consequences, and even extrinsic incentives irrelevant.

Discipline is usually perceived as a negative thing, but it depends on who we are following and believing and where we are following them to. If we believe in ourselves and thus follow ourselves in the direction of our goals and dreams, self-discipline will become one of our greatest assets. We tend to become great a whatever we become disciplined at. Therefore, if we consider the areas of our lives that we've exhibited self-discipline, we can accurately predict where we will become great.

Self-discipline requires full immersion into something that you are a truly passionate about. Most people just want to stick their big toe in the kiddie pool of life, believing they can swim in success without ever exploring the deep end to really see if they can or not. The reality is that we have to let go of the ledge of security and scuba dive head first into our dreams. Staying afloat isn't living. Actually swimming is living. Like breathing to live, self-discipline is the oxygen that fuels any type of practice, which is a requirement for success to manifest as we play the game of life.