Your career is what you’re paid for. Your calling is what you’re made for. Life is at its best when you’re paid for what you’re made for.
Steve Muthusi is a cognitive psychologist, a successful personal and corporate author initially trained as a chemistry lab expert. The thing is, at some point in his career in the lab, hands gloved white and busied mixing chemicals and wafting smells, he felt stuck.
He took self-stock and critically thought about where he was and where he wanted to be, and ultimately, he went back to school. He says he one evening lumbered back home a frustrated man, and a glance at his bookshelf shifted his life. Neatly arranged to allow titles to be read from book spines, he realized all books were on psychology; none on chemistry. A pointer to where the flames of his passion burned.
Steve is currently a first-rate cognitive psychologist, carving an indelible positive mark in millions of lives. In a mellow chat with him he says, “Your career is what you’re paid for. Your calling is what you’re made for. Life is at its best when you’re paid for what you’re made for.”
Looking at his story, Steve felt stuck in his career because his passion was elsewhere. He was waking up every morning to walk further away from his heart. Are you in this same cage? Are you on a leash and you’re feeling you’ve come to the end of your tether? Are you driving at neck-snap speed down a career path that doesn’t give you any satisfaction?
An analysis of this question could help you find your solution.
What sets your teeth on edge; the job or the workplace?
Being candid enough with yourself to drive an answer to this question is an important first step. It could be that the reason every morning your heart sinks to the thought of going to work again is your toxic workplace, and not the job itself.
In such a situation, send out applications to other organizations in the same industry. Alternatively, speak up. Is it a problem that the organization can solve? Speaking up means you want the best for the company and therefore want the environment to be better for it to stimulate you towards giving your best.
If the job is the problem and it makes you sick, then you need to seriously brood. Find a place in solitude and ruminate on these words: a career is what you’re paid for; a calling is what you’re made for. Life is at its best when you’re paid for what you’re made for.
Keep searching deliberately for where your strengths lie, let your fingers keep straying on your life’s piano in search of that tune that your heart will sing to.
Full disclosure: even if you’ve had your current job to your eyeballs, that U-turn to a completely different path won’t be child’s play. It will call for sacrifices including accepting to start from scratch, or as in Steve’s case, going back to class. It may mean humble beginnings, earning lesser than you used to, or even wading into a pool of uncertainty, all alone. But the good news is, it is possible if you put your mind to it and feel the pain of putting the shoulder to the wheel.
In your sanctum while you try to figure out what you’re made for, these questions could point you to a probable answer
- What do people compliment you for?
- What makes you lose track of time?
- What career would you still pursue even if you had all the money in the world?
- What career persons attract your attention?
- What are you quick to grasp and even when slow, you never quit?
- What do you want to be remembered for (your legacy)?
- What career ignites your curiosity?
