The Power of Specificity

This post by Paul DeBettignies (Minnesota Headhunter) demonstrates how powerful it is when you get specific about the kind of job you want.

Paul tells the story of writing down his dream job and then almost immediately being offered the exact job. He manifested exactly what he wrote!

Then he turned it down. Because it wasn't really his dream job. It would have taken far more time than he wanted to work at this point in his life.

The lessons I take away from this story are:

1) Be specific about what you want. When you are specific, the universe can deliver what you want. It may not happen immediately, but it will happen when you do the necessary work. That means telling the right people what you want, for people are the agents of the universe. Who are the right people? You'll find out! So tell everyone and then see what happens.

2) Specificity about a job is about its elements, not its title. I noticed that Paul listed things like "Being a Recruiter (not not the account management side)", "Creating relationships, being an evangelist," "Helping job seekers" and "Doing some training, teaching." These are about his role, the skills he wants to use, the impact he wants to have, and the culture he wants to work in. Nowhere does he say "Vice President" or "Manager."

3) Be careful what you ask for! Make sure your description of your dream job leaves room for other relationships and activities that are important to you. Or it isn't really your dream job.

Specificity is powerful, in all its aspects. Getting specific does require you to focus on what you love to do and what you want to do again, the environments in which you thrive, and the impact you want to make. And it requires writing it down! That will allow you to edit, fine-tune, and see whether you've gotten it right.

You'll know you've described your "right fit" job when you get a smile on your face when reading the list, or feel excited, or your gut just feels "right."