Determination: You must be determined to succeed and not to give up. There are times when it will be tough, but you are boss and one solely responsible for making it good again. You may get knocked back on occasion, but a true success just keeps on going in face of set-backs.

Inter-personal skills: Working for yourself does not mean you will be locked in a room alone. You will often have to interact with other people; your customers. Good inter-personal skills will make this experience more rewarding and help you get best from people. They will help ensure you have a successful business.

Communication skills: Both written and spoken communication skills are important. Often in market place today, words are key to success of your business. Therefore, spend time developing your skills in this area - it will pay you back many fold to do so.

How many of above skills do you currently have? Do you feel you are weak in any of these areas? If so, then strengthen them by attending courses or reading some relevant books. Being strong in all above areas is not necessary for personal success, but will help to make it much easier.

Look at list of things you are passionate about, and think about how above skills can be applied to and compliment these.

Finding your ideal career

Now, back to list of things you are passionate about. Take a new sheet of paper and write first item on your list at top of this new paper. Underneath it, brainstorm all jobs you can think of that involve your passion. Let your imagination run riot and be as creative as you can. Each item you have written down offers you many possibilities. Also use reasons you enjoy item to help in this exercise.

Using gardening as an example, you could write down: gardener, author, teacher, TV presenter, landscape designer, tree doctor, and farmer, park ranger, and so on, just to mention a few.

Still on same item from your list, write down all ways you can think of to make money from it.

With our gardening example this may be growing and selling plants or vegetables, or doing gardening for people in your neighbourhood. There are of course many other opportunities here. Be creative and imaginative and think outside of your normal box.

Look at all these ways of making money and note ones you can start right now and ones that you would really like to do. Perhaps you could start on one or two of these now, whilst still working in your current job.

Repeat above exercise for each item that is on your list. Over next few weeks keep adding to these lists. This exercise stimulates your mind to be creative, which results in creating many more great ideas – often when you least expect it, so make sure you write them all down.

The results of these exercises will be a list of what you enjoy doing, why you enjoy doing and a list of possible careers and money making opportunities that you would gain pleasure from. You do not have to make a massive move and quit your job right now. You can take your time, and slowly begin building your own business, or just earn a bit of extra money to help pay bills whilst keeping your current job. You can also use this list to determine what career is best for you and begin planning a move to this new career.

Ask yourself question, “If I could do anything at all, what would it be?” The answer to this question will help you determine which of items on your list to pursue first. It is important not to spread yourself too thinly otherwise you may find that nothing ever gets done. Once you have decided which way to go you must do a goal setting exercise and work out your route to your target. Goal setting workbooks and articles can be found at http://www.shapingyourdestiny.com.

Pursuing your passion means living life to full. It means waking up each morning and looking forward to working. It means more energy, more fun and feeling more alive. Sadly today many of us are working jobs we would rather not be doing. Perhaps it is time that you took advantage of shifting economy and lived your passion instead of dreaming it?

4. Be Precise - Always proofread your resume. Spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors will disqualify you quicker than anything. A well crafted resume is an essential tool in job search process. Find someone else to proof it for you as well. Often, other people will catch something you overlooked.

5. Be Brief - Be careful to write a resume that is not "wordy" or "superfluous." It is very obvious to anyone reading one of these resumes that there is not much substance to them. Make each word count.

Ultimately, even a well crafted resume rarely gets you hired by itself. Click here for more info on 3 Step Job Search Process that always gets results.

To access links in this article, go to www.careercalling.com/Archives.htm and read February 25, 2005 edition of The Coach's Career Tips and Resources!