What is a Career Breakthrough Project?
A Career Breakthrough Project is a project that will bring you a massive step closer to the next level of your career. Depending on your goals, this could mean:
- Most or all of your income coming for your creative practice
- Gaining increased attention for your work from the media
- Broadening your audience
Here is one sign that a project is your Career Breakthrough Project-
The Law of Least Effort or "Really? Just Like That?"
In the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, one of the laws he outlines is The Law of Least Effort. The law says that when you are in harmony with your purpose and gifts, you will experience great success with the least amount of effort.
The law isn't about being lazy, however. Working hard on your craft is essential to being exceptional and being exceptional at your craft will make sure you are prepared when the opportunity comes. When the other components to completing a project seem to fall into place, or an opportunity is placed in front of you to do what you already do in a different way, it's a good sign that this project is the one.
Wendy Piersall, author of several adult coloring books, was approached in 2009 to do an adult coloring book by someone who had followed her parenting blog. At the time, she thought that no one would ever buy adult coloring books, but with the recent decline in her blogging business, and the devastation of foreclosing on her house and having to relocation with her husband and children, she figured she had nothing to lose.
We all know now how immensely popular adult coloring books have become, and now Perisall is one of the most successful authors of adult coloring books around. It was an opportunity she could have miss, however, if she had been leery of the fact that it was placed in her lap.
We may also miss our Career Breakthrough Project because it comes up while we're working on something else. While author Junot Diaz was writing a sci-fi novel, one that he says he is still struggling to complete, he kept finding himself writing about a nerdy Dominican kid in New Jersey, whose family had to deal with the historical curse of the Trujillo regime. Once he stopped fighting the story that kept coming to him, it became The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a stellar, award-winning book that put Diaz at another level. Working on his career breakthrough project wasn't always easy or enjoyable, and it took over a decade to complete, but it kept coming to him. He would write about it when he was trying (effort) to write other stories.
Your Career Breakthrough Project may or may not be obvious to you. It may come at a time that seems inconvenient, or in a way that on the surface, seems like a long shot. Especially if there are little to no red flags, the idea or opportunity that seems to just land in your lap may make all the difference.
Next week we will get into the other signs that an opportunity is your Career Breakthrough Project, plus what red flags you should never ignore.
Your Partner in Prosperity,
Chakka
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- Short Documentary Film Makers: The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film will award a $5,000 grant to a single completed “Short-Short” documentary film project. Our grant is open to up-and-coming, independent film makers and directors in all countries. Participant must be committed to the field of reportage and documentary film making. Deadline is March 31. Apply here.
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