By Colleen Kay Watson, Career Professionals®

When I was a little, my friends and I had dreams of being someone as exciting as an adult. We would play cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, astronaut and aliens or the cast of a favorite fairy tale. Our imaginations allowed us to dream in ways that most adults have forgotten. We could be anything or anyone we wanted to be.

I want you to use your imagination here. You have won the lottery. You've got fifty, one hundred, or two hundred thousand dollars a year for the rest of your life. What are you going to do for a job? Are you sailing or flying around the world? You could be sitting on beaches and living in hotels. Eventually, you will arrive at a place where all of the hotels and beaches look alike and your soul hungers for a more meaningful existence. The human spirit longs to feel that it is housed in a worthwhile life. We all want to feel like the world is a better place because we have existed. You will have to find something meaningful in your life as a vocation or an avocation. We all need to feel that we are contributing. If the money didn't matter, what would you be doing?

Your success in any occupation depends on your enjoyment. Loving your work makes the difference. If you enjoy what you do, you'll be successful. If you don't enjoy what you do, you will not be successful. Too many people hate their careers and hence their lives. This is not a dress rehearsal; this is your life, so try to pursue something that will give you a deep sense of satisfaction.

In 1973, my sorority sisters and I were graduating from college. We were all sitting around telling each other what great things that we were going to do with our college degrees. Now, mind you I had a double major in history and psychology. It was not until much later that I discovered that the only thing I was equipped to do with those degrees was to psychoanalyze dead people.

My sorority sister, Judy, said that she wanted to run a gift store. Well, we really teased her and said, "Get a life! Retail really! You have to do something important with your college degree." Judy didn't listen to us and she got a job running a gift store. Then she became a district manager running the gift stores. Then she became the training director for all of the gift stores for the entire company. Then a major hotel system recruited her away. Today, she travels globally in their corporate jet making well over six digits, running the hotel gift stores.

Find a career that makes you happy and money will follow. You may not be rich, like Judy, but you will be what I would call successful. There is no price tag on a happy and fulfilling career. That is priceless.