Pick a Career You Will Love

I bumped into a student on the bus today and she asked me what it was like to work - why people always say that going to school is more fun than working. I explained to her that, in school, you learn many different subjects and topics each day. Every day is fresh and exciting because there are new concepts, new ideas, and often very different ideas. At work, however, you are learning the equivalent of one subject every day for 8 hours each day. You might get very good at that subject and become a specialist in it, but it is the same thing every day. She didn't like the sound of that. I think everyone likes variety.

It's funny how students work so hard to get to the working life, only to become embittered over time by the monotony of their career.

What can be done? Here are some ideas:
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1. Choose a job where you'll do something you wouldn't mind doing every day, 8 hours a day. If you really, really like the subject that you're working on, it won't be so bad.

2. Take breaks. Sometimes working folk forget to take breaks. They work, work, work, work, work, and then burn out. If they took more regular breaks, they wouldn't be fried by the end of the day.

3. Make friends at work. It's fun to have people to share experiences with and to vent with in case of a bad day. You're going to spend most of 5 days a week with your co-workers, make sure they're people that you like working with.

4. Try out new opportunities. Maybe you're thinking about a change in career, or there's something you've always wanted to try out? Go ahead and taste test these opportunities. Take baby steps by taking a part-time course, doing some freelance work, attending some related groups or workshops, or taking on a volunteer opportunity. Sometimes, the little changes are enough to make working life more enjoyable.

5. Worst case scenario, get a new job. Sometimes you'll really hate your job and nothing about it will make you happy. It's okay to get a new job. Most of the students in our generation will end up changing their careers sometime in their life. If things really aren't working out for you, get out and start fresh. Don't force yourself to stay in a situation that might make you ill overtime because it's stressing you out so much.
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So there's my two-bit on working life and how to make things better for yourself.
Cheers!

Making a Career from doing what you Love

I started reading "Success Built to Last , Creating a Life that Matters" by Jerry Porras et al lately and realized that Mytutorlist.com users could benefit from some of the ideas in this book. On interviewing and analyzing many individuals who have experienced self-defined, world-changing success, Porras et al found some common themes. They discovered that how successful you feel at the end of your journey doesn't depend on how rich or powerful you are, it depends on whether you did something that you found meaningful in life. Porras et al encourages the reader to identify what is truly meaningful to the reader, and then to follow their passions with thinking and actions to support that meaning.

I was really encouraged by this. Every day, advertisements and media try to tell us different definitions of what will make us happy. This happens so much that we lose track of what we really care about, what we are really passionate about. Porras et al argue that when you find what you really care about, you will know because you will become obsessed about. And because you're obsessed about it, you lose track of time and you will work harder than anyone else to follow that passion. Perhaps you're in school, and you don't know what to do for your career. The key is find out what you really love and to make that into your career - not because it will make you rich or famous, but because following passions give you drive and committment that you won't find by following a career that you don't love or care about.

I hope that every student out there will realize the vast potential that they have when they find meaning in their life and can take actions to create more meaning. We are all capable of doing more when we do something that we are passionate about.