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Sometimes, the more things stay the same, the more things
stay the same. A frustrated and angry young doctor with $250,000
in tuition debt cried, "I wasn't considering my long-term
happiness when I was 18 years old, nor did anyone bring it to
my attention." Just out of medical school at a top Ivy League
university, this orthopedic surgeon is looking for a new career
path, one that fits.
Things haven't changed since I graduated
high school a quarter-century ago. So, why aren't we yet providing high
school juniors and seniors with better career choice mentoring?
To answer this question well, let's explore human nature in the
face of change and the history of our mind.
Usually, changes that we may be ready for don't happen until
we have enough proof that the change is necessary and doable.
When it comes to considering a major change in our lives, or
in society at large, we all know how easy it is to fall back
on the same old way of doing things.
We humans love our routines.
In the morning we brush our teeth, drink our coffee, grab the
newspaper, and sit in traffic jams to go to jobs we don't particularly
care for. Human life needs rhythms, which are important for reducing
the stress of living in an unpredictable world. If we had to
change things up everyday, and completely reinvent what we do
and where we go, life would feel chaotic. Even if we don't like
our routine, we'll usually opt not to upset it. Unknowns can
create enough anxiety and fear to keep us locked into the usual
way of doing things. This default behavior gets short-circuited
if "keeping things the same" becomes an actual threat
itself.
For example, back when the Washington DC sniper was on the
loose, the whole metropolitan area experienced higher levels
of stress. People were hesitant to do regular daily activities
like shopping and going to work or school. Hundreds, if not thousands
of the schools within a 90-mile radius went into lock down mode;
no one was allowed outside for lunch. Even Friday night football
games were cancelled. The threat to any one of us in the DC area
was very small, but most of us reacted as if our chance of being
the next victim was likely. Daily life changed. The take out
and home delivery food businesses boomed, and retail stores weren't
getting many customers. An anomaly in our environment caused
us to react. We adapted to the situation, changing our "same
old" way of life. For a short period of time, keeping things
the same was no longer comfortable.
>> read the rest of this article . . .
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