We spend a lot of time trying to find things in life. The right job. The right career. Our passion. Our purpose. The opportunity that will finally allow us to use our talents.

But what if some things in life aren't waiting somewhere to be found? What if we have to build them?

Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski and her colleagues have studied something called job crafting - the ways people proactively reshape aspects of their work to make it more meaningful and better aligned with their strengths and interests. Sometimes that means changing what we do. Sometimes it means changing whom we interact with. And sometimes it simply means changing how we think about the work itself.

Looking back over my own career, I can see several moments when I unknowingly did exactly that.

Early in my career, I wasn't a very good public speaker. My job didn't require me to become one overnight, and nobody handed me a development plan telling me to fix it.  So after work, I joined Toastmasters. I practiced speaking while helping other people become better speakers themselves. Eventually, something that had been a weakness became an important part of my professional toolkit.

Years later, I realized technology was changing business faster than my own knowledge was keeping pace. I could have waited for my employer to send me to a class. Instead, I joined the Technology Association of Iowa.

Suddenly I was meeting technology leaders, learning what they were experimenting with and seeing how new technologies were being applied inside companies and people's lives. My world became bigger because I deliberately stepped outside the boundaries of my existing job.

Then, about 15 years before I retired, another realization occurred. My success as a leader was becoming less about what I could accomplish and increasingly about helping other people become their very best. So I began investing in coaching classes.

Initially, I simply wanted to become a better manager and leader. But those classes opened another door. Coaching became an increasingly important part of how I led, and years later it became the foundation for an executive coaching business I never could have completely envisioned when I took that first class.

None of these things were really part of my job description when I started them. But they eventually became part of my career.

The key message is this: we don’t have to be passive recipients of the jobs organizations give us. We can exercise agency in shaping our work, relationships and ultimately the meaning we derive from them.

There is an important caveat however.  Job crafting isn't an excuse to neglect the job you already have.

I still had responsibilities, customers, colleagues and commitments. The first obligation was to do my current job to the very best of my ability.  In fact, for many years, I always told people the most important job of your career is the one you currently have.

If you only remember one thing from this week’s column, it’s this: your job description doesn't have to become the boundary of your development.

You can volunteer for a project. Join an association. Take a class. Find a mentor. Learn a new technology. Develop a skill. Help solve a problem nobody assigned to us.

You don't need permission to become more capable.

We often imagine careers as a series of doors that someone else opens for us. Looking back, I think many of the most important doors in my career appeared only after I started walking toward them.

The next chapter of your life may not be sitting somewhere waiting for you to discover it. You may already have everything you need to begin building it.

What capability will you need five years from now that isn't required of you today? What interests you enough to pursue even if nobody asked you to? Where are you waiting for someone else to create an opportunity you could begin creating yourself? And what could you start doing this week - not instead of your current responsibilities, but beyond them - that might someday change the direction of your life?

Tony Thelen is the founder of The River Coaching and Consulting, LLC, an executive coaching firm based in West Okoboji. He is the author of "Am I Doing This Right?" and "Things We Desire." He works with CEOs, business owners, and executives to remove pain, anxiety, and stress while making room for true personal and professional growth. Contact Tony at [email protected] or learn more at www.therivercoach.org