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Setting out on an extraordinary career path starts with a "fresh look" at what a career is. This includes asking yourself better questions about what you want most out of life. The key is to be intentional about choosing. Where to direct your life and how to get there is the challenge of a lifetime. Waiting for fate to guide you, or seeking quick answers rarely produces lasting results. Ask around, do you know many people delighted with their work life? By the irritated facial expressions in the workplace, it's easy to see that most are compromising. Some may even tell you that everything is fine, but I encourage you dig a little deeper to get a reality check on how people really feel about their work. You're not alone.
Today, lots of people know that it's possible to be highly fulfilled in their career, but don't know how to get started. Basically, choosing a career path that engages your personal sense of wonder and intrigue is harder to do than falling into whatever comes along. It takes more time to design and build a career that really suits you. Let's face it, it is a lot easier to get a credential in a high demand field. Unfortunately, the everyday 9-to-5 jobs that are readily available (already packaged for you) are not designed for people who want to fully express themselves. Nor are most work environments supportive of people with new ideas and inventiveness (with the expectation of some of the more recent dot.coms). Hence, there's a trade off. The more certain route promises more security, but, usually lacks the self-expression, autonomy, and creativity that comes with a custom-made career. Here's a few ideas on how to begin navigating your way onto an outrageously fun career path . . .
Your concept of work is everything. Human beings make choices based on rules. Our rules, models, principles, and concepts shape everything we do, and every voluntary action we take. People who live by the rule that "things will work out later" will probably have a life that looks like a leaf in the wind, waiting and hoping for the answers to magically appear. Your rules and views about how life is "supposed to be" are shaping your daily reality, even when you are not looking! When it comes to career choices, the age-old view is that work is toil. It's just supposed to be that way, because it's always been that way. Slugging through the day is prided upon, and practically worshipped as a necessary evil. Even today, a time when "putting food on the table" is easily accomplished, this old rule still largely runs the show. Today's high school grads are still choosing careers for the same reasons their grandparents did.
The world has shifted, but the commonly accepted "rules" have not. In the last 150 years, the United States has gone from a rural farming society, where career choices numbered less than 100, to the high-tech information age. Today, there are infinite career possibilities. Yet, the "nose-to-the-grindstone" philosophy (from the early 1800s) is still a prominent value (values are a form of rules) being taught to today's high school seniors. "Pick something practical," they're told, "you have to put a roof over your head!" At the same time, these young people know that something is out of whack. They have a stronger bullshit detector. What they see as possible and the rules they are being taught are at odds. For example, let's take an Aborigine from the bush country in Australia to downtown Manhattan for a day, then send him back and tell him to forget what he saw. Tell him that it's not practical to have a modern life, it's too risky. Get the point? When it comes to choosing a career, you'll get what your values and rules say is legitimate. If you believe a great career is unrealistic, then you'll likely get exactly what you asked for. If you still prefer living by the old rules, have fun playing in traffic with all the other grumps.
In defense of most people, it's pretty difficult not to build your lifestyle on the "shoulds" and "should nots" handed down from parents and American culture, encouraging stability and marketability, especially if your parents were born during the Great Depression. It's important to recognize that their advice comes with the best intentions and love. However, this "wisdom" encourages a person to make a one-dimensional career choice - one that only pays the bills. Once you're financially comfortable, then what? Twiddle your thumbs and watch the clock? Pretend that you like what you do to get promoted? A viscous cycle of job hopping ensues, and the search for more challenging work takes over your brain. Before you know it, you're on the rat wheel racing other rats to a finish line that does not exist. Ten years can quickly go by, several job changes, and you wake up on a career track you still don't enjoy. It may seem as if you've sentenced yourself to a dead, dull, boring existence. But at least you can pay your bills, right? Wrong. Don't throw in the towel yet.
Having a great career takes a leap in thinking to a different concept of career. The focus is shifted from achieving an end-point, a secure job, to enjoying the daily journey. Asking only how to be secure and successful will likely lead you down a path to being a grumpy dwarf. To create a career that you'll love going to everyday begins with asking a completely different set of questions.
Rather than ask, "What should I be when I grow up?" ask more specific questions. For example, "What comes naturally to me? What do I find most meaningful about the world? What kind of work environment best supports my talents and personality?" I've worked with hundreds of professionals in many fields; engineers, programmers, scientists, executives, marketers, managers, lawyers, nurses, doctors, chiropractors, teachers, professors, and policy makers, who have not thoroughly answered these questions. The majority of them had three strikes against them. They lack the natural strengths for their functional role and daily tasks, they don't find their field personally meaningful enough, nor is their workplace ecology suitable to their unique (or quirky) personality.
Have you ever seen an elephant living in a tree? That's what it feels like when you've trained yourself to do something that does not fit well. As noted above, our cultural values actually encourage that elephant to try even harder to be like a squirrel. Even after several job changes, an elephant will never find true happiness in a squirrel's profession. For example, this shines light on why there are so many lousy managers in technical fields; organizations are unknowingly promoting hard-wired (inborn) spatial and logical problem solvers into "people development" roles. Management training may help a little, but it can't replace the "know how" of those born with natural abilities at coaching others. The consequences of having so many people being mismatched are showing up as symptoms in our societal well being, remember all those grumps around you at work! The core problem (educating elephants to be squirrels) is invisible as of yet. On the surface, its symptoms are disguised with lots of good intentions, hard work (likely inefficient), and long hours; all in the name of the duty. The real teller is in the overall well-being of all those people sitting in traffic jams everyday, living for the weekend, and being treated for depression, stress disorders, bad marriages, and ulcers. Hmmm, let's see . . . maybe if we give that elephant flextime, better pay, free meals on the job, and an office with a window he'll be more enthusiastic about his job up in the tree. Not!!!
No matter how hard the elephant tries to excel at being a squirrel; at best he'll be mediocre. Now give that elephant a PhD for passing the grade, and a go-ahead to practice professionally. Would you want him for your surgeon, attorney, or financial advisor? Although college credentials were initially designed to protect society from incompetence, they actually seem to be promoting it. Recent surveys show that at least 65% of college graduates feel they made a serious vocational error. After 10 years in the work force, the number of "misemployed" college grads is 75%, a conservative estimate.
If you're stuck in the wrong job, it is not too late, and it's highly likely that it is not your fault. It's nobody's fault. That's just how the world turns, right now anyway. But you do have a choice, and if you're willing to be a bit of a maverick and go against the grain, there is a way to beat the odds. As you continue to explore this web site, keep in mind three questions: What are my inborn talents? What do I find personally meaningful and want to make a contribution toward? What kind of workplace environment and ecology best supports my talents, personality type, values, passions, and lifestyle? Answering these questions could take time, or maybe you'll have a lightening strike of genius. Either way, have fun and good luck exploring! |
