
This post is going to be a collection of thoughts over the last 5 months. I was walking home from work as I usually do and I got to thinking about “time”. The first thought that pops into my head is that I wish I had more of it. You don’t realize how much time you have until it might be too late. Time affects everything around us. It affects our life.
I think we get so absorbed with everything that we forget about our window of time that is slowly disappearing. I remember when I was in my 20s, I thought to myself that I had so much time and didn’t have to think about my choices or decisions. But as I moved into my 30s, time began to really become more obvious and I realized my choices do have a major impact on what happens.
Time is very unforgiving and unfortunately, time is not something you can get back. These last 2 years that I have worked at the same job has made me question whether or not this is the job I want to be doing another 5 years from now on. Maybe, I’m not as fortunate as others, but it definitely seems from where I’m at that getting a job now isn’t the same any more. Why should we continue to grind away at a job doing something we don’t enjoy? Everything has a number, a letter grade, a certain kind of profile you have to meet, or a set of requirements you have to pass in order to get that job or career. That is why we take a job because it is the only job at the time that we can actually obtain or because it is a job to meet our basic needs. I think before you can have a career, you have to stay in a job for a long time and that job will eventually turn into a career.
I accept that rejection or failure is a part of not getting a job and then someone will tell you, just work harder. I think you begin to reach a point where working harder is beginning to feel like you are treading water. You are not really going anywhere. You are just staying in the same place that you started. It is a feeling of reaching for that thing that you really want to have, but you know that after working tirelessly and endlessly at it, you still are not up to the level of excellence that you need to be in order to claim that thing.
Could it be that we are all reaching for that next job or career and we just embrace what we have and for some of us, we might have a chance at something great. For others, it could be that we have to settle for less than great because we are only marginal at our skills or abilities. It is one thing to place an emphasis on skills and qualifications for a job, but it is another to use that as a way to evaluate an individual without getting to know that individual by giving them a chance to demonstrate their skills and see if there is any merit to their claims.
Even though I can’t do anything about time, I feel it is going by faster every day. It is racing by me at a blazing speed. I don’t want the perfect job or career. I want to find a job that I enjoy and not a job that I do because it is a means to an end or a way of making a living. Think about the job or career you have and ask yourself if that is really where you want to be in the future.
