People have been congratulating me on being photographed and quoted in U S News and World Report magazine.  What strikes me is how this is a sign of doing work that I’m meant to do.  That’s different from work that you are good at or work that you are capable of.

As an engineer for over 15 years. I was competent and got good performance reviews. But I wasn’t distinctive in my field. I didn’t belong to IEEE or push the envelope of the engineering world. I was not active in furthering the engineering profession.  Just four years into coaching, I’ve inspired public coaching demos around the world, been accepted to speak at this year’s International Coach Federation conference, and launched a podcast as a way of marketing coaching services. This is not to toot my own horn. This is to say that excellence and distinction come easily and naturally when you are doing work that is in the groove of who you are.

Another case study. I blogged about my friend, Frank Nowell, when he started the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado last fall. As an accomplished harpsichordist and early music buff, this orchestra has been a long held dream. One that never got the light of day when Frank was working as a technical editor and then a manager of technical editors.

Frank recently gave me an update on their first season. That’s Frank in the front, with the brown sweater and jeans.  He told me that the audience response has been enthusiastic to the point of getting letters with words like: "I felt as if I had been lost and finally found my way home.There was not a moment when my heart was not beating a mile a minute." Musicians are contacting Frank to see how they can be a part of the orchestra. And new board members with fundraising experience have appeared from nowhere. But the best part came when Frank talked about recently hearing one of the top baroque chamber orchestras in the country.  His goal for his own orchestra was to be in the second tier, after the top five. His response to hearing one of the top five?  "We are a bit behind, but not much. It’s possible for us to make it into the top five."  After just their first season.

Frank is meant to lead an orchestra this size, in this genre of classical music, with the attitude of being "the musician’s musician."  His work is magical and the results are showing that. He confirmed that he never reached this level of distinction in the technical editing field.

So what field will you make your mark in?  Where can you shine easily and naturally? We all have it in us. Don’t settle for work that you are competent at when you could be doing work that makes you distinctive. Find the work that you are meant to do and have the courage to move toward it.