How much is enough when giving to your career?
A simple question was asked of me a while back “how much do I have to put into a startup for it to be a success?” Well my first thought was if you do everything right, you can still fail in a start up. The environment controls many critical elements of a successful outcome, which you can only influence at best.
Enthusiasm is a great asset, but if experience has taught me anything, it needs to be tempered to a wider frame of life. If we don’t succeed in reframing to a wider view of life, we can get trapped in eternal failure by unrealistic ambition, over dedication to work and vulnerability to those who would abuse our commitment to their own ends. A great way to stay framed to a wider view of work is to think of where one is at and what they will get back in return for all their commitment. What will all those late nights of work bring? Money, status, influence, power and/or promotion??? Maybe, but can’t your boss “steal your credit?” Yes he can but the fact is that overfocus on our desire for money, status, influence and power has made us vulnerable to its dark side. We need to be smarter and think about what we WILL get from all those late nights that is ours and ours alone? If happiness is not on the list, then one is not at the races for a decent lifestyle! In such a case, lifestyle then becomes a career of servitude and unhappiness. It does not need to be that way if we assert our true nature in society! We need to find our own way and own our future!
As with startups, careers working for others require goals, a reward and a limit where we call it a day and continue our search for a better working arrangements elsewhere. Here are some points I have found to be helpful over the years when trying to balance career and lifestyle. Bear in mind I learnt more from my mistakes than from my successes.
- Core Values - Write them down, “I value... “ This may sound strange, but in order to think about our core values, we need to detail them and when they are offended, know when to call it a day. If our deep seated values are not defined, then others will invariably push against them allowing us to become derailed from our true selves.
- Passion - Always too easy to think… “ohh, I’d love to be an astronaut but the family need me to be an accountant, so I won’t think about it!” Well spaceman, if being an accountant doesn’t inspire your passion, find something that does and plan your route to it. If you really can’t join NASA, then find another passion to become your next career and plan your way there in detail. As the old saying goes “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!”
- Goals - Write down your goals in life, your “bucket list” if you will! If you want to get married and have children, then make sure your path in life leads down that road. However, if you also want to be a 90 hour a week Wall Street executive, then maybe you should reconsider your goals in life; for realism is the ointment on which we heal from bad decisions and see in a better day!
- Balance - Balancing work and personal life is never easy but if you need to take a break from your personal life to make a work dream come true (or vice versa), make sure it’s short term and is defined by a plan to achieve a detailed objective. It invariably requires sacrifice, so be sure the cost is worth it. For example, I have sacrificed much to train up as a Software Developer and at this early stage am starting to see a return for my sacrifice in increasing competency in programming along with an increasing thirst for more knowledge in the software area. Such change is a very tough yet rewarding process. That’s part of ‘my journey’. What’s yours?
- Flexibility - Like all things in life, our intended plans rarely go as planned so be prepared to be flexible based upon your deep seated core values. Maybe a career setback becomes an eye opener as you see a chance to find your way to a career you love, not tolerate “a job” for a paycheque! Being flexible in a grounded manner is a way of life, which demands sacrifice to say on the right path. However, if you travel the right path, opportunity will invariably come knocking and being flexible is key to grasping it in whatever form it takes. Many paths lead to the oasis of happiness!
The above are guiding principles, which I hold dear based on a good upbringing and sometimes harsh experience in life that has knocked me on my ass more times then I care to remember. What I’ve learnt is that truly successful people won’t worry about failure, falling down or what the peanut gallery of doubters think of them. They focus on their journey, how they will achieve and when knocked down by life’s tribulations, they focus on getting up and brushing off the dirt so they can get on with their journey to a bright, brand new day!
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Feature photo by Angela Litvin on www.unsplash.com
In all fairness, I hope people will pay attention to your "balance" section. I know many people (me included) who made too many sacrifices for their career at great personal cost.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed... We have all been there... I think the cost becomes acceptable if we learn from our mistakes and move back to a balance that is right for us... It's an individual thing in my view that is often overlooked due to society and the expectations we think it has of us...
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