What If You Could Do Anything?

Here’s an interesting question: What would you choose to do for a living if you could pick anything at all? What would you do if no one knew anything about your past work history or credentials, except you?
What would you do if you could do anything?
This is a question that Gwynn posed to me last week and even now it has me thinking.
It’s difficult to answer this question when you don’t have one specific passion or that one concrete calling in life. I told him that if I could do anything at all I would love to help people declutter and organize their home, work or holiday space.
I love simplifying, decluttering and organizing, almost to the point of obsession, and I love helping people feel better by getting their lives in order.
But is that it? Is THAT what I would do?
The more I thought about it the more things popped into my head as to what I would do.

• organize fundraisers for charity
• become a chef
• photography
• write
• run a bed and breakfast
• run a couples resort in cottage country (this was Gwynn’s suggestion … but I liked it too)

So why choose one? Why even ponder this question at all? It’s not like this is ever going to happen anyway. I’m not going to just drop everything and start up a photography business or buy a couples resort. Truth is I don’t have the skills, know how or money to do either at the moment. But wait. Aren’t these just excuses?
The point of pondering this question is not to figure out what you should be doing right now or to live in la-la land but rather to gain some insight into what you would really rather be doing if there were no restraints at all.
Use this exercise to shift your path in a direction that may ultimately lead you to such a career, hobby or enjoyment of life. You can only jump at an opportunity if you know that it’s in fact an opportunity.

Warning!

If you play out any of these scenarios all the way to the end, be sure to spend a bit of time thinking about the other side of the coin as well. Sure running a couples resort would be awesome. People checking in for a quiet romantic weekend, they’re likely to be happy and rather quiet. There would be plenty of time for me and Gwynn to just putter, soak in the sun and meet new people.
But what about when people trash a cottage, break a propeller blade on the boat motor, or shout profanities at you when the phone lines are down and they can’t get on the Internet? Having to deal with last minute cancellations, people showing up with a pet or their kids. Would this still  be something I would do if I could do anything?
As it so happens for this example, yes. I love a good challenge when it comes to customer service. It provides a great opportunity to put this personal development stuff into practice On the other hand, if I was scared of confrontation or didn’t want to deal with maintenance issues etc … then heading all the way down this path in my head would save me a lot of heart ache and time.
So I pose the question to you. What would you do if there were no limits and you could do anything?