Career Development: Making work serve life, not the other way around!
We all work hard and we all want to make enough money to be happy. But how many of us can say we are living the dream of walking down your ideal career path?
Not too many.
The reason for this is many of us find ourselves in a career path we would otherwise not choose to be in but we’ve allowed circumstance to put us there. Even in difficult financial times like these, it is not too late to make a career change for the better. In fact, in times like these it’s crucially important to make wise choices and not succumb to desperate thinking.
To help facilitate this thinking and drive, consider these simple rules for putting yourself and your needs ahead of your job, rather than the other way around – when contemplating a career change:
• Work serves life when it is a natural part of your existence that is a professional expression of your values, passions and interests.
• Life comes first. Who you are, what you care about, your most important relationships and the values, passions and interests that make you uniquely you, should come before anything else.
• Create clarity about what you want your life to look like now. Capture your vision and hold it with gentle ferocity. Firm flexibility is paramount since there are plenty of surprises, and you want to enjoy them!
• Work is a tool. The more aligned it is with your vision of your life the more fulfillment and enjoyment you will experience. Lesser alignment of work and vision sap your energy, foster frustration and encourage other self-defeating behaviors that lead further away from the vision.
• Everybody wins when work serves life. Working with passion and engagement is the desire of every worthwhile employee and employer.
• Transition is an opportunity – making work serve life is a fresh paradigm. To make it happen, you cannot simply live by default, letting others make decisions on your behalf. Take action, seek differently and put life first every day.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different resultsâ€
- Albert Einstein
• It’s your job to believe in you. Whiners, victims, doubters and experts in self-limitation need not apply.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:27 am
I love how you have positioned work in relation to life. I have always tried to refer to work as part of life, which of course it is. But rethinking that now, I find it powerful to say: “Work is a tool” and “life comes first”. My father, who loved his work but also his life, always used to say: you don’t live to work; you work to live. Perhaps that is why I have always loved life and been fortunate to discover work that I love to do – especially now, coaching others who want and choose to be in charge of their own destiny.
Thanks for this article.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Thanks for your comment, Marcia. You dad sounds like a great role model!