The Career Advice I Wish I Knew a Year Ago
We spend most of our lives at work. According to research, the average person spends one-third of their life at work approximately 90,000 hours.
Shocking, right? But, it can be even terrifying if you're stuck with a job that you don’t enjoy doing.
Everybody wants to get their dream job. Everybody wants to find their passion. Everybody wants to feel good at work. But, what if feeling good is not the answer.
If I ask you, “What do you want out of your career?” and you answer me with something like, “I want to enjoy every second of doing my job and be happy,” then you screwed.
Here’s another interesting question that can help you assess your career choices. Instead of asking how much do I enjoy doing this? ask yourself how much am I willing to struggle to achieve this?
A career is true for you only if you accept and even “enjoy” the struggle attributed to it because you just can’t skip the process. And the one constant in each process is struggling.
There is a lot of crappy advice out there saying, “If you don’t enjoy doing something, then it’s not the right thing for you or you’re not passionate about it enough”
If I could give career advice to the one-year younger me, it would be definitely these two:
1- Feelings aren’t true:
Feelings mirror your perception and thoughts of situations. They don’t reflect the truth; they are real but not true. I failed a course and felt like a failure for the whole day. And then the next day, I got an opportunity that I was waiting for and I felt so good about myself and life. Neither of these feelings reflected my potential or my passion for what I’m doing. And according to the advice I stated earlier I should have quit college because it didn’t feel good to be there.
Do entrepreneurs feel good about their projects each day? Do writers even feel good writing? NO. But, they know that it’s true for them to do what they’re doing.
Disney’s happily ever after that we wish to experience after choosing the “right” career is merely a fantasy.
Being on the right path doesn’t mean you’ll feel good 100% of the time. Even if you’re doing something that you’re passionate “enough” about, you’ll feel challenged, you’ll feel triggered, you’ll feel sad when things don’t go your way, you’ll feel defeated, you’ll feel excited, you’ll feel nervous, you’ll feel proud, you’ll feel happy, you’ll feel the tension.
2- Finding your passion is not a thing:
I’ve always thought that I am on an adventure to find my passion and that once I’m there, I will experience tremendous joy. It was as if I’m looking for something extraordinary, something that is not included in my routine. I never knew that it could be the very thing that I do a lot and that I resist doing all the time: writing.
“Your passion is right in front of your face. If you have to look for it, then you’re probably not passionate about it at all. So screw “finding” your passion.” — Mark Manson
Keep in mind that waiting won’t magically bring about your passion and purpose in life. If you don’t know what you want to do yet, then it’s time to be curious and explore.
Takeaways
- Feelings aren’t a good metric to measure your success, passion, or growth. So they shouldn’t affect your choices.
- The process of life can never be a straight line of happiness and, so is your career life. Instead of focusing on feeling good, be true to yourself about what you want to achieve and use self-discipline to bring off both success and happiness.
- Do not wait until you find your passion. Show up to the world, try, and explore.
