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If Your Career Sucks, Your Life Probably Will Too...
...And don’t kid yourself: it CAN happen to you.
It’s happening to more and more people… inexperience leading to wrong decisions leading to a life stuck in the wrong career.
Or worse! Decisions made by others can render years of study and experience obsolete – just like that.
Good Decisions are Crucial
Decisions: even in good times, they are important. In bad times, with uncertainty everywhere, they are absolutely crucial. Your career and your life depend on your ability to make good decisions.
And it’s not just your decisions, either: in our interconnected world, decisions made by others – some of whom you may never meet – can put some careers “over the top” while clobbering others.
(If you wind up working for fools, crooks, or both, it won’t matter how intelligent and virtuous you are – you will wind up in whatever mess they create.)
How can you be sure you’re making good decisions? And how can you know who else is making good ones as well – hopefully reducing your chances of jumping onto a sinking ship?
One way is to consider the “Sanity” part of careersanity.com:
Career Sanity = Sound Judgment = Good Decisions = Better Careers
"Sanity" means, among other things, "soundness of judgment." Sound judgment leads to better decisions and the right career for YOU.
Easy enough to say. But what does this mean? How will careersanity.com help you to make better decisions – and to recognize others with similar abilities?
Careersanity.com takes a clear-headed, unsentimental look at some of the ways we learn to make decisions – and some of their possible effects on our careers -- and offers suggestions and alternatives that can help.
Are some of these issues affecting YOUR decisions?
- Lack of experience making major decisions
Our society defines anyone under 21 (in most states) as “incompetent” to make “real life” decisions. One obvious effect of this is the lack of much opportunity to learn how to make these decisions before deciding on a career.
Careersanity.com suggests acknowledging the effects of this lack of decision-making experience and allowing for some “trial and error” in your career – just like you would for any other new activity or skill.
- Lack of positive examples / role models
Let’s be honest: have you spent much time around people who got more from their work than a paycheck? Most of us have not. Deciding to take a job – “just a job” – might seem reasonable if you don’t really believe a career that means something to you is even possible.
Careersanity.com discusses ways to challenge this effect, including watching out for others who do enjoy their work (they are out there) in order to reduce the negative impact on your career decisions.
- Impatience: you want a family, big house, nice cars – right now!
Research suggests that most people are competent to live independently years before society allows them to – so a desire to “get on with it” and begin living fully as soon as possible makes perfect sense.
But there is a catch: jumping into a full set of obligations too quickly can limit our ability to experiment, to find the career (or careers) that makes the most of our abilities and preferences.
Careersanity.com encourages looking at the big picture in order to make the most of an admittedly tricky series of tradeoffs.
- Not believing you are worthy of living the kind of life YOU want
Unpleasant, probably unpopular, but true: most of our institutions -- family, school, and others -- tend to put the group's well-being above our individual happiness. To avoid feeling the pain and frustration this causes, many of us scale back on our expectations -- essentially buying into the original premise. You can see how well this works by watching our societies continue to unravel.
Not an easy one to overcome, but recognizing the issue and its effects can be a good start.
- Personal / emotional "issues" -- maybe yours, maybe others' -- that can distract from the real issues at work
Here’s a career-slowing “speed bump” that you may encounter: one of those unhappy souls who chooses to “share the wealth” by making your life miserable. But it’s also a major decision point. What do you do? Careersanity.com looks at the options. They start by recognizing that what you do is infinitely more important than what the other person is doing – because it’s the only part you can control.
- Uncritical acceptance of whatever “the company” is doing, regardless of personal convictions
You can run, but you can’t hide: avoid the endless stress that comes from taking part in activities that you believe are wrong.
You can ignore your instincts here – but sooner or later you will pay for this choice. Generations of bartenders, drug dealers, clergymen, and mental health professionals could attest to the suffering caused by lives lived in conflict. Take charge of your future by avoiding this trap.
Listen carefully to opinions of those you trust and respect -- but don't delegate this essential decision to anyone.
- Magical thinking: if you want it badly enough, it will happen
This is a holdover from childhood, when all we could do is want something and hope like Hell somebody else would provide it. As adults we have “powers and abilities” that are a lot more reliable than wishful thinking – if we will utilize them.
Careersanity.com advocates positive thinking but recommends leaving magical and wishful thinking to the kids.
Career experts agree: increasing global competition and relentless economic pressures have permanently transformed career management from the “good old days.” The days of spending decades with a company, then heading out to enjoy your generous pension, are pretty much over.
Instead, it’s going to be up to you to watch out for your career, to stay a step ahead of rapidly changing markets, new technologies, and political developments that create new work opportunities as they eliminate older ones.
It’s a time for clear heads and top-notch decisions. Come to careersanity.com for hard-hitting information you can use to kick your decision-making engine into overdrive.
