I Haven't Had a Full-time Job for a Year and My New Passion and Purpose in Life is to Stop "Looking" for Jobs

I have been officially unemployed for nearly a year, other than few marketing and video projects here and there. I have officially applied for nearly 200 jobs. You read that correctly - 200 jobs.

So, as you can see, while unemployed, I have been working pretty hard. In fact, I find it more stressful not having a job than having one and I've worked in some pretty stressful businesses - live television production, marketing, and college basketball coaching.

But today, I realized I have been approaching this job hunt thing all wrong. Believe me, I have been working very hard at doing it wrong, taking thorough steps to revise and revise my resumes (I have three - one for coaching, one for marketing, one for broadcasting) and customizing my cover letters for each job description and researching the hell out of each company. I have spent hours reaching out to everyone I know from college to previous jobs to LinkedIn and Facebook looking for anyone connected to every job I applied for. Keeping myself busy by applying for sometimes as many as five jobs in a day has certainly made me feel productive and guilt-free. At the end of each day I could say, "I made progress today." But did I? I certainly have learned through this process but not sure if I really made progress if my goal is to have a full-time job.

Well, today it finally hit me, a day after I found out as summer nears here in the very hot Midwest, that it will cost nearly $1,000 to fix the AC in my car and now I will have to go to job interviews drenched in sweat. I started to sort of feel sorry for myself. Wow, no job, no AC? But then I chuckled at the fact that at least "my" parts are working. And that made me think how grateful I am to be healthy, educated, passionate about my family, relationships and friends and still energized and enthusiastic about finding gainful employment.

What finally hit me today? What I have come to now realize and hope to help many others in my situation, whether you are unemployed, unhappy, or unsatisfied, is that it's not about your JOB, it's about your PURPOSE, your PASSION. No this isn't something new. I didn't just invent this. In fact, I have heard this message throughout my entire life and I have even believed in it myself but I was never patient enough, until now, to follow my passion and set my purpose. I was so caught up in not having enough time to focus on my passion because I have too much work to do. I used to think that you saved passion for retirement. Well, that would be a waste of life on Earth.

I know what I want to do and I know what I am passionate about and I know I can make a living by following my passion and finding my purpose. You purpose can be whatever you want it to be as long as you are passionate about it.

Over the next 30 days I'm going to stop worrying about constantly looking for jobs to apply for (believe me I've done enough of that and I know I don't need more practice at that) and I'm going to challenge myself to start acting on my passion and purpose.

Over the next 30 days and beyond, I'm going to start saying "YES" to my purpose and passion. "YES" means if this is what I want to do, then "YES" I can do it.

In my next blog I will sort of outline my passion and my chosen purpose and then take you along on my journey to employment, happiness and satisfaction. Notice I got rid of the "uns" and "nos" and I'm saying hello to "YES."