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For those who feel trapped by a long, emotional investment in a career they loathe and have never explored a career with equal helpings of passion and prosperity out of a fear of being judged, unsupported or ridiculed, the global economic crisis offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore a radically different approach to the way they earn a living. But, if they don’t use it now, they may never have the willpower to do it again.

This is according to popular blogger and the author of How To Make A Great Living Doing What You Love Jonathan Fields.

“If you lulled yourself into believing that a honking pile of money or a seemingly Teflon job with a big, established company was your ticket to security, you’re likely smack in the middle of a rude awakening,” writes Fields in The Fire Fly Manifesto: Bad Economy. Just got Fired. Time to Fly.

He outlines a simple truth: life is not all about sacrifice, suffering or giving up what matters most in the name of being a grown-up. Passion, purpose and fulfillment matter. They make us come alive at work and at play. And, pursued in the right way, they come with a healthy serving of prosperity.

He says a growing movement of career renegades are breaking the rules, bucking convention, doing what everyone around them says is undoable and, along the way, are building massively meaningful careers with generous incomes, often from their kitchen tables or home offices in small towns across the globe.

Many people work for years, maybe decades, sacrificing time with the people who supposedly mean the most to them, all in the name of creating a secure, opportune future based on the insanely false assumption that there is no other way and that is what successful people do.

“It’s a lie,” says Fields. “That is what sleep-working, anxious, depressed, unfulfilled, walking heart-attack, overweight, unfit, stress-riddled, job-hating, no-way-out, relationship-falling-apart, kids-barely-know-you, getting-number-by-the-day, Monday-morning dreading people do. If that is success, then I want to fail.”

Redefine success: it’s not about money, toys and prestige

Fields says beyond affording them the luxury to comfortably pay their bills, the bastions of modern success – money, merchandise and status – add little to people’s happiness, satisfaction and security, and have little or no relationship with true success.

“It’s a fantasy. To the extent that the pursuit of these things takes you away from other activities and people who truly make you come alive, they probably do the exact opposite.”

Valuing relationships, purpose and impact instead of holding up money, merchandise, status and their illusion of security as the currencies of success allows you to identify what you love to do, tap into the wealth of tools, strategies and new technologies that have come onto the scene in the last few years and make a substantial living around what makes your entire life smile.

Seven steps to becoming a career renegade

Instead of scrambling to find another job that sends you spiralling back into years of sacrifice in the name of a life that, in the end, you didn’t really want, try going about crafting your career in a very different way, suggests Fields.

In guiding his own evolution from a six-figure, beaten down, mega-firm attorney to a lifestyle entrepreneur, blogger, author, copywriter, marketer and even a yoga teacher, while still earning enough to live very comfortably in the world and supporting his family in New York, Fields asks this question:

“Do you consciously choose to pursue a soul-sucking path defined by excess money, toys, burn-out and increased agitation, anxiety, depression, alienation and false security or will you take this window as an opportunity to rebuild your living around the quest for purpose, passion, health, friendship, love, time spent doing what you love with people you love, a body that doesn’t horrify you, a heart that’s not on the verge of failing and a career that fills your soul and provides enough to live very comfortably in the world?”

It is said that anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. People generally can’t stand the anxiety of uncertainty. So, they tend to rush back to the jobs they know, regardless of whether these jobs may be wrong for them, kill their spirits, alienate them from those they care about and destroy their health.

Fields outlines seven action steps for those who are ready to take the plunge:

1. Don’t freak out

You may have left your job behind, but you still have you: your skills, abilities, experiences, connections, knowledge, work ethic and drive with you. If you succeeded by applying your strengths to a field of little interest to you, imagine what you’ll be able to achieve when you let the same qualities loose on something you love.

2. Own up to your passion

Step back and revisit what really makes you come alive. Most people already know, but have buried the answer deeply, assuming they can’t earn enough money doing it and, even if they tried, nobody would support their quests. The growing number of “career renegades” obliterates this assumption. Your job is to own up to what you really want to do.

3. Research your career renegade path

Changes in technology and internet access over the last five years have created a wide variety of renegade paths to profitability, making it possible to turn things you thought would never generate much cash into serious businesses that deliver a global market of customers, clients and colleagues to your doorstep.

Making a great living doing what you love isn’t a matter of “if” anymore, it’s a matter of “how”. Learn to leverage this technology and the world becomes a much richer place.

4. “Speeducate” yourself

Whether you just need to brush up in the area of your passion or train intensively, you can now find massive amounts of information, education and even certification and licensing for nearly any pursuit, online. Much of it is free or available at a very reasonable fee. It’s there for the learning whenever your schedule permits. If you have the desire to do so, you can master just about any field in an astonishingly short period of time.

5. Turn out your tribe

Once you know what you’re talking about, tap the world of blogging and social media to publicly demonstrate your mastery to a massive number of people who are literally hanging around the online and face-to-face worlds waiting for someone to step up, answer their questions and lead them.

Whether your next step is within someone else’s organisation or launching your own venture, establishing yourself as a known, go-to person in the area of your passion puts you in the driver’s seat ... and it costs next to nothing to do.

6. Rally your rabbis

Nobody does it alone. In order to succeed in your quest to become a career renegade and rebuild your livelihood around what you love to do, you’ll need people on your team:

• Rally those closest to you to support your cause. The economic meltdown has created an opportunity to do this.
• Find and connect with one to five “rabbis” or mentors who have already achieved what you want to achieve and will agree to help guide your evolution.

7. Master your mind

Given equal qualifications and abilities, the job, support and funding go to the most confident, calm, collected, resolute, overtly-passionate and likable person. You can be that person, if you get your mindset act together.

Commit to a set of simple daily mindset practices that will allow you to de-stress and refocus, cultivate lasting peace of mind and remain calm, cool and collected in nearly any situation or setting.