“I’m so good at this it’s scary!” our daughter text-messaged about a new job she had recently started.

I laughed, then texted her back, “How so? AND it doesn’t surprise me – at all. I always knew you’d be good in business!”

Anne was enterprising at an early age. She quickly tired of waiting for people to drive by her lemonade stand. Sales weren’t high enough for a product as good as the one she was offering, she thought. And so? She “took her product on the road” by starting (to my surprise) to sell it door to door in our neighborhood.

I don’t remember if her new and improved sales strategy worked. I do remember that she “couldn’t not” at least give it a try.

From her earliest years, she was also a natural people organizer, a sincere and enthusiastic advocate for ideas, causes, and goals she whole-heartedly believed in. And she writes very well, even if not as quickly or easily (yet) as she wants.

Anne doesn’t realize it yet, but all of her most natural skills are vital for many jobs, no matter what the field.

So for her college degree, did she follow her natural instincts?

Not so much.

She chose a major that, despite her interest in the final outcome, put her in class after class where she was surrounded by people for whom science was their natural field of play. In that world, before she got to the classes for her own major, more often than not she felt “wrong” rather than “right.”

And as a result, steeped in that world? She experienced the feeling that almost everyone does if they’re somewhat off their own natural course. It’s the sense of, “You’re really nothing special in OUR world.” I remember that feeling VERY clearly from my first job out of college. One of those “NEVER AGAIN, EVER AGAIN,” experiences, it helped me right my own course, find my own natural path. It hurt, but it helped, in the long-run, yes.

Now Anne’s at the stage where she’s taking all that she learned in college and mixing it well with her natural, undeniable strengths. She’s trying to discover which career path is hers. It’s all a bit of an experiment.

So the great thing that her text message flagged?

The realization that work, if you find the right work for you, CAN be fun.

It may feel like a luxury, especially in an economy such as the one we’re in, to think about work being a source of great pleasure, even joy. But work that you love truly is a blessing.

And the result of your work, in such circumstances? Well, in those circumstances the work you do can be so good, so true that it is a gift to those for whom you do that work. Think of the great teachers you had, great writers whose inspired or entertained you, great chefs who created wonderful works of food for you to enjoy. Think of dedicated medical workers who helped you find your way back to health, if once injured or ill. And, of course, there are so many more.

If your job, your work now is less than perfect for you:

- What can you do to make it less of a burden and more of a blessing?

- How can you bring out more of your strengths?

- If you continually feel more “wrong” than “right,” is it (dare we say it) time for a job change? Yes, even in this economy…you can find your way to your right path, experiment by experiment, day by day, a step at a time.