A great number of people spend their lives doing something they don't enjoy during the week, always looking forward to the weekend. They refer to Monday as "Blue Monday" and to Wednesday as "Hump Day." At the end of the week, they say "Thank God It's Friday!"

These are men and women with very little in the way of a future. They look upon their jobs as a form of drudgery, a penance they have to pay in order to enjoy their free time. And because of this attitude, they have trouble making progress.

They stay pretty much where they are, always wondering why other people seem to be living the good life while they feel like they are living a life of quiet desperation.

But in order to advance – in order to move up to more difficult, more interesting, and higher-paid positions – you must become extremely good at what you are doing right now. If you don't have the desire to be very good at your job, that means you are probably in the wrong one.

Here’s what my colleague, Brian Tracy (author of the book Reinvention) advises…

It’s time to be honest with yourself…
By Brian Tracy

Too many people do their work in a mediocre way, with the idea that, when the right job comes along, then they will really work hard. But the right job never comes along. They are always passed over for promotions. They are always the last ones hired and the first ones laid off.

What about you? Are you in the right job?

Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself what you would like to do if you only had six months left to live. What would you choose to do if you won a million rand in the lottery tomorrow? What sort of work would you do if you were absolutely guaranteed of success in your field? If there were no limits on your abilities and opportunities – if you had no debts, no problems, no commitments – what would be your ideal career?

Research shows that the things people liked to do between the ages of 7 and 14 were a very good indicator of what they would be most successful at as adults.

A man at one of my seminars told me that when he was 7 he loved to build model airplanes. As he got older, he built more and more complicated planes. By the time he was 14, he was building them with engines and flying them in contests.

Today, he is 35 years old. He has a degree in aeronautical engineering. He designs small aircraft. In addition, he owns an aircraft maintenance company and an air charter firm. He is a multi-millionaire, and he feels like he has never worked a day in his life. He has always done what he loved to do from the time he was a boy.

If you're not sure of your true calling, ask the people closest to you. Ask them, "What do you think would be the very best thing for me to do with my life?" It is amazing how the people around you – your spouse, your best friends, your parents – can clearly see what you should be doing when you cannot see it yourself.

Project yourself forward five years, and imagine that your entire life is perfect in every respect. Imagine that you are doing exactly the right job for you, in exactly the right place, with exactly the right people, and earning exactly the amount you want to earn.

What would that look like? Where would you be, and what would you be doing? Who would you be with, and how would you have changed?

When you have that picture in your head, think about the steps you would have to take to get from where you are today to where you want to be in five years. What skills would you have to develop? What information would you have to acquire? What obstacles would you have to overcome?

Success comes from being excellent at what you do. The market pays excellent rewards only for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for average performance, and below-average rewards for below-average performance.

All really successful and happy people know in their hearts that they are very good at what they do. And if you are doing what you really love and enjoy, if you are following your true calling, you will know it too.