In this 3 part series, we look at 3 types of career paths and the lessons we can learn from them. The first article in this series is Lessons from the Accidental Career and the second is Should You Just Give Up On Passion?
Being a ‘millenial’ myself, it’s difficult not to catch a certain type of feeling (or a million) about watching people your age have it ‘all figured out’. You know the ones. The guy who studied accounting and is now an accountant doing what he wanted to do. The girl who studied fashion design and is always hitting up your Instagram with her amazing designs. And then there’s you. You’re sitting here, reading this article trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
You told yourself that this current job was going to be a temporary situation just until you got on your feet. After that, you accepted another job doing something totally different but still so far from your first true dream. I feel you buddy and I know what it’s like.
In part one and two of this series, we’ve talked about finding yourself in a career you love accidentally and pursuing your passion. But what happens when you just can’t seem to set yourself up nicely on the catapult that is supposed to shoot you in the right direction. My advice? Think of it as taking the scenic route to your final destination. It takes some of us longer than others to get to where we truly want to be but that doesn’t mean we won’t eventually get there. Here are a couple of things to help keep you sane on the way.
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You don’t always have to figure everything out. I’ll let you in on a secret that no one wants to admit to. No one and I mean no one, has everything all figured out. Trust me! They might be further along the line than you are but it doesn’t mean they know everything. The only thing you can do is learn what you need to learn in the place that you’re at.
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Time is your friend. Taking the long way around means that you will fulfil that chinese saying about luck. Luck is when opportunity meets preparedness. So you aren’t where you want to be but you can definitely use this time to prepare for where you want to go. In the end, when the opportunity prepares itself, you’ll be ready and you’ll thank yourself for it.
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‘Patience you must have my young padawan’. If you’re a nerd like me, then you know that’s from the movie Star Wars. The green dude (Yoda) says it to Luke Skywalker who wants his Jedi training to be over and get out there into the battlezone. That’s a lot of us when we’re trying to get to where we want to be. We don’t want to wait it out. But patience is key even when you do get to the ultimate level of your career. What better time to learn it than while you’re ‘in waiting’?
Feeling like you’re taking the long way around to get to your big career dream? Tell us about it! Plus, we can help you figure out some your questions through a session with our career coaches.
