Heard about Ken Coleman’s From Paycheck to Purpose: The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love? This book claims to help you be less confused and more clear about what you should do. But does it live up to it’s promise?

For a little context, Coleman is a newer personality with Ramsey Solutions, the company started by personal finance guru, Dave Ramsey. Coleman is about my age and is kind of a poster child for what can be done with some purpose and persistence over years of re-directed focus on a career. About 10 years ago, Coleman completely shifted careers from running a small business to broadcasting and now he has a Sirius daily radio talk show – and it’s pretty good. Not bad for a guy without a college degree. If you listen to his podcast or his audiobook, you can hear the enthusiasm in his voice for his work. And it’s this enthusiasm he wants to transfer to the listener or reader about their own work. Let’s dig into Coleman’s 256-page book on career planning, From Paycheck to Purpose.

Stage 1: Get Clear on What You Were Born to Do

The first step on doing work you love, according to Coleman, is to get clear. That is, to gain a definite picture of what you should be doing and what you should not be doing. How do you know what to do with your life? Good question.

Coleman offers up a three-part answer on page 19 for finding work that you ought to do. This work will be a combination of your talent (what you do best), your passion (the work you love to do most), and your mission (the results of your work that matter deeply to you). When you can find work that combines your talent, passion, and mission best, you will find work you love. Simple to outline, but not as easy to execute.

When I was aiming to switch careers years ago, this was a key part to what I did. I took a paid career assessment that highlighted several areas that I should consider in my career field. The number one career from the results I got was “mathematician” which is funny, because that was both unexpected and seems like a very boring job to me. (Apologies to all you happy mathematicians out there). So I didn’t go down that road. But I did focus on one of the recommended paths from the test: marketer. Specifically, I wanted to be a copywriter and that work fits firmly into the marketing machine. That wasn’t the only thing I did to gain clarity, but knowing the assessment was a quantitative measure of work I was suited for gave me some confidence in the direction I was heading on my new career path.

Stage 2: Get Qualified for the Work You Want to Do

The second step to doing work you love is to get qualified. If you completed stage 1 (Get Clear), you now know what you’re supposed to aim for. The second stage is to start the path to doing that work by getting qualified for the work.

On page 46, Coleman poses four questions you need to answer to continue on the path to finding work you enjoy doing. Here they are:

The Education Question: What do I need to learn?
The Experience Question: What do I need to do?
The Economic Question: How much will it cost?
The Expectation Question: How long will it take?

Getting the answers to these questions will further help to outline the path to finding and doing the work you want to do. It’s a reality check to anyone who’s 60 and wants to be an NFL star. For that guy, he probably missed that boat. But it’s also smelling salts to that same 60 year old who always wanted to be a farmer. For that guy, it’s not too late. Whatever your dream, you need to consider these essential steps related to education, experience, economics, and expectations.

Returning back to my story, I knew I wanted to be a copywriter but I had to get some more information before I became one. I had a college degree in history — not much help in copywriting, but it did give me some experience in writing. So I bought some books which are cheap and read a bunch of online articles which are free. After a little education, I eventually started volunteering to gain some experience in the field I previously knew very little about. For me, I really didn’t know how long it would take or how much it would cost. But because I knew I didn’t need another degree or certification at the time, it was reasonable. And it just seemed like it was the right path so I kept at it.

Stage 3: Get Connected for Opportunities

The third stage for doing work you love according to Ken Coleman is about connection. After getting clarity and getting qualified, you need to get connected. This is where you bridge your newfound skills, passions, and purpose with the opportunities that exist in the marketplace.

Coleman offers up a small-but-mighty concept called the “proximity principle” on page 91. The proximity principle is this: “In order to do what you want to do, you have to be around the people who are doing it and in the places it’s happening. Then opportunity will find you.”

This is an interesting concept from Coleman: Go where people are doing where you want to do and opportunity will turn up. Does it work?

Now I didn’t know about the proximity principle when I was aiming to switch careers. Keep in mind, I followed Coleman’s general 7 stages years before he wrote this book. But I did use his ideas to an extent. I remember hearing that it’s important to connect with people doing what you want to do. So I did. I reached out to multiple people who were in the marketing industry, specifically to writers. And I picked their brain in a respectful sort of way. Each person I chatted with was generous with their time and I followed up with a “thank you” email. Point is, I connected or reconnected with people doing what I wanted to do. And things started moving ahead.

Stage 4: Get Started on the Journey

The fourth stage on the clear path to doing work you love by Coleman is to get started on the journey with a good first job. In this stage, we understand the importance of the action in the proper way. Coleman writes on page 144, “To start right you need to choose the right path … in the right place … at the right pace … always keeping the right perspective.” He calls the path, place, pace, and perspective “trail markers.” These will tell you whether the next step – usually a job – is the right one. Is it leading to your dream job? Is the new position in a healthy, non-toxic environment? Is it happening at the right time in your life? Are you maintaining your other priorities to make this job work? Answering “no” to any of these questions suggests it’s not the right opportunity yet. That’s how the trail markers work.

My break into the marketing world was through a writing position at a small financial services firm. That job fit all the trail markers that Coleman mentioned. I interviewed for a position which was basically a better-than-entry-level position as a writer and marketer for the firm – the pay was better than I was making before. The company was small, but was perfect to give me some experience in a new field. The pace was perfect because I really was looking to escape my previous position. And finally, the job allowed me to keep all my other life responsibilities while fulfilling the new role at the company. They apparently liked how I could fit and contribute in their firm so they hired me. It was really a dream-come-true that I landed such a position in such a short amount of time. All told – from the time I began to pursue copywriting as a career to the time I got my first job as a writer was about 8 months. It was awesome!

Stage 5: Get Promoted up the Ladder

The next step on this journey to your dream job is to get promoted. Chances are, the dream job is not an entry-level position at any company. It’s likely several steps away from where you are now and you’ll need to climb the ladder to get where you eventually want to go. Although this stage is called “Get Promoted,” Coleman is clear that it’s not only about advancement. It’s very much about contribution and, as he puts it “winning the now.”

Coleman writes on page 163…

“Back in the day, when our grandparents were in their prime, workers were usually handed a promotion just for clocking in for a few years. Not anymore. Now you get promoted for what you do and who you are. In order to demonstrate that you’re ready for the next level, focus on these three promotable actions in the now. Consider them the three rungs on your job ladder:

Know your role.
Accept your role.
Maximize your role.”

According to Coleman (and anyone who thinks about this for 5-seconds), landing a dream role by just showing up to work on time ain’t gonna happen. It takes knowledge, execution, and a little more persistence.

It’s at this stage where my story diverges a bit from the one that Coleman outlines in the book. Granted, I don’t think Coleman is promising a straight line to your dream job and mine was anything but. What happened for me was I was in that marketing and writing role at that financial services firm and the Great Recession / Housing Crisis of 2008 hit the country. Our firm took a financial hit and everybody’s pay was cut. It’s understandable – I don’t blame the owner. But I took it as a sign to find something else before I was laid off.

So I applied to a few other places and landed another entry-level role at a digital marketing firm. To this point, I had grown more interested in the field of marketing and with the financial uncertainty of my then-current position and the chance to learn more on the digital side, I prayerfully decided to move to that new role. So technically, it wasn’t a promotion. It was a lateral move — but the move proved to be the perfect start on what would later become my first successful business.

The agency was Leverage Marketing. It’s still around in Austin, Texas if you want to look them up. And it was there I learned how to sell something – almost anything – on Google. It was definitely more than just copywriting. It was there that I nailed my second entry-level position in a new field. It was hard. I didn’t know if I was ever going to “get it,” but they were patient with me and eventually I learned the system. I knew the role, I accepted the role, and I maximized the role. Before I left the company about 18 months later, I had become a trainer for the organization.

Stage 6: Get Your Dream Job

After getting clear, getting qualified, getting connected, getting started, and getting promoted it’s time to get your dream job. That’s the job you were born to do — or at least one of the jobs you were born to do. Coleman defines the dream job using four filters on page 201. He says the dream job consists of:

the right work
the right pay
the right environment
the right timing

He says that when all four line up, it’s a “career grand slam.” He also says that all factors must be a part of this “dream job” opportunity or it could be a mirage. So be picky and look for everything to line up.

I did get my dream job and had it as my full-time role for the better part of a decade. After working at a couple of different marketing agencies as an employee, I eventually started my own digital marketing agency. It’s still up and running – check it out over at SearchPros.com.

In this role, especially at the beginning, it was a dream-come-true. I got up in the morning, same as everyone else, and commuted to my office about 25 feet from my bedroom. Sometimes I would go hangout at Starbucks. Other times, I would go eat breakfast alone and just do what agency owners do. It really beat anything else I had ever done previously both in the pay and the interesting work. Running a business is challenging and I didn’t do everything right. But as far as a general direction and having a “dream job” it was pretty close. I have lived what Coleman described in Stage 6 and I can tell you it was so worth the climb.

Stage 7: Give Yourself Away to Work Like No One Else

And we’ve now made it to the final stage of Ken Coleman’s book, From Paycheck to Purpose: Give Yourself Away. It’s at this stage you’ve enjoyed the fruits of your labor. You’ve enjoyed the climb and your dream job for some time. Coleman writes on page 242:

“At the top of the mountain, you see more clearly than ever where the needs are. You see who you can help that you’d never known about until now. You see how you can help – and you’re able to help in ways that you couldn’t before. You realize the dreams others have, and you want their dreams to come true just like yours have. Now you’re in a position to give yourself away like never before.”

Coleman is describing a person who has accomplished what they wanted to accomplish in terms of career success. They have experience in certain areas, financial rewards that come with it, and a settled joy in doing what they were made to do. Now, that person can give themselves away.

Wrapping up where I’m at and how it relates to Coleman’s 7 stages, I haven’t made it to Stage 7 yet. In a way, I’ve taken a detour from my dream job to do some other work that is more meaningful to me as a Christian. It is fulfilling, but it seems to be diverging a bit from Coleman’s 7-stage path. I couldn’t have done the work I’m now doing had I not had the business with the income freedom that it afforded. So I’m living an aspect of Stage 7 (Giving Yourself Away), but I don’t think I’ve completed the steps quite yet. There may be another dream job developing in the wings. We’ll see how it goes.

Takeaway: Work Purpose & God

Overall, I would recommend Coleman’s book. I think it’s helpful for anyone looking for some clarity on what to do with their life. And if you’re looking for a more direct path to work you’ll actually enjoy, check out the book.

My one caveat on the book is that it’s not necessarily written to a Christian audience. So I can appreciate it for what it is: a motivation-type book to help people find work they’re going to like. And that’s a commendable goal. There are Christian themes in the book – Coleman is likely a believer (the title page has Philippians 3:14 under the title). But there’s less information about what God would have to say about your career path and more how you discover it without God.

I think anyone on this path of personal development needs to be reminded of Jesus’ words often, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). Our careers, whatever they turn out to become, must integrate our faith or else we are building our lives on something else besides God’s will – which isn’t a safe path.

What about you? If you’re looking for some more help on discovering what you should do with your life, check out the playlist I put together, “What Should I Do With My Life.” It’s right there.