We all want our work to be enjoyable, engaging, and meaningful. How do you go about achieving this admirable (yet often elusive) goal?
The clichés “do what you love” and “follow your passion” assume you know what these things are. Most people don’t. (Even if you did, you should ask: Is this something I should do for a living, or should it be a hobby?) More importantly, these clichés often have it backward: you don’t love some work then dedicate yourself to it. You don’t have a preexisting passion then follow it. You dedicate yourself to something, then with enough time and effort you may enjoy, even love, doing it. You endure challenge and discomfort, you focus persistently on a task until you’ve acquired a valuable skill—then you have the makings of a passion.
Vocations don’t begin as vocations. They begin as curiosities, interesting problems, general strengths or aptitudes. It is dedication to these things that grows them into vocations. The word “passion” comes from a Latin word meaning “to suffer”; this implies that a passion isn’t something you stumble upon or follow blissfully, but something you earn through continual hard work, when you could be doing something else, despite difficulty and resistance, and without feeling certain that fate has called you to it.
Now, the question is: How do you know what to work on, dedicate yourself to, suffer for? How do you begin to cultivate a vocation you enjoy (most of the time)?
1. First, make these questions important to you. Keep them in mind. Be more sensitive to what you find interesting, meaningful, and valuable. See the world through the lens of vocational possibility and you’ll recognize opportunities for enjoyable work where you wouldn’t have before.
2. You need feedback from experience to figure out what kind of work suits you. “We learn who we are in practice, not in theory.”
Sample a variety of work, reflect on what you’ve learned about your abilities, interests, and values, then iterate. “You need to try new activities, visit new places and meet new people. You need to put yourself in the way of new opportunities and test yourself in different circumstances. … If you don’t try new things then you may never find out what you are capable of.”
3. Evaluate your interests,
strengths, weaknesses, and personality. What is important to you? To what degree are you influenced by the desire for fame, fortune,
or power
instead of the desire to find work you enjoy and can do at the limits of your ability?
Are you limiting your vocational choices based on a sense of self that is too narrow
or inauthentic?
Do you already know what you’re good at or interested in, but are ignoring or avoiding it?
4. In addition, think about the following: What skills can I develop that are flexible and in-demand?
What are some important, under-served problems I can apply myself to?
What work should I choose in order to do the most good in the world?
What inspires gratitude in me, and could be a source of meaningful service to others?
How can I incorporate several of my diverse interests to do something unique?
5. Continue to learn about as much as you can. The more you learn about the world, the greater breadth of vocational possibility you’ll expose.
6. Cut out your work for yourself as much as possible. Working only on what others tell you to isn’t the best way to discover your talents or interests. This can be difficult because we are raised on prescribed (often unwanted) work, and tend to want only recreation afterward. But in order to find work you love, or accomplish anything great, you need to learn to work for yourself, without anyone telling you to, even when you could justify not working.
7. Develop the habits that enable you to do focused, deep work. Practice time-management: plan your days, block out time for specific tasks, set SMART goals. Create one place to capture the information relevant to your vocational journey.
8. Wherever you are on your search for vocation, don’t just consider possibilities, start trying things, start making things. This protects you from discovering too late that you don’t actually enjoy work that you think you would enjoy. Build evidence of your knowledge and skills—ways to signal to other people that you’re interested, active, and competent.
9. Don’t put off choosing a direction because you think:
a) You only have one shot so your choice needs to be perfect. (If you wait for this certainty, you’ll be waiting forever.)
b) You’ll be locked into whatever you choose. (There will be opportunities to change direction later—sometimes against your will; better to make changes informed by experience you’ve accrued along the way.)
c) You’ll be ruined if you fail. (You’re stronger than you think. And failure is a valuable opportunity for course correction and anti-fragility: becoming stronger through adversity.
)
As long as you’re making informed, autonomous choices, working hard, and learning something, your experiences will lead you in the right direction. The person who tries many things, experiences failure, and develops courage in the face of risk is better-off than the person who tries only what is safe, fears failure, and is disheartened when confronting the risks needed to grow and thrive.
10. Network. Talk to real-world people about work. Look for mentors, role models, opportunities for apprenticeships, or any kind of exposure to appealing work—and initiate contact with these people. Connect with those who share your interests and support one another. Use the resources of your school’s career office even if you aren’t sure what you want to do.
11. Research. Look for data about the fields you’re interested in. Are these fields in-demand, growing or shrinking? What kind of education/training/certification do they require? What breadth of opportunity will certain educational paths enable? What do people in those fields have to say about their jobs and lifestyles? Look for current employment statistics (job satisfaction, remuneration, paths for advancement, etc.) to help you anticipate what a vocational choice entails.
12. You’ll never have perfect information when making career choices. No amount of data will absolve you of the responsibility of choosing a direction, and implementing that choice with confidence and commitment. You should still gather a reasonable amount of information to make a good choice, but there will always be risk and uncertainty. (You must even decide how pertinent information applies to you and not merely the “average” person.)
13. There’s a difference between loving the content of your work and being satisfied with the conditions around which that work is done. The latter includes factors such as: relationships with colleagues and superiors, others’ appreciation for your work, job security, autonomy,
attractive salary, work-life balance, benefits, etc.
These things are important for overall work happiness, but they are more helpful when asking, say: Which of these particular job offers is better for me, considering my skills? rather than: What skills should I develop in the first place?
While interest in what you’re working on contributes to workplace happiness, it’s more helpful to think of interest as fuel used to develop the mastery that actually makes work fulfilling. It is this mastery (having rare and valuable skills) that most often opens the doors to the things that make a job generally satisfying.
Smart employers will offer the most enticing work environment to attract and retain the most valuable employees. Valuable employees can leverage their mastery to achieve the most satisfying work conditions.
14. No work is enjoyable all the time; there’s always some drudgery and dissatisfaction. Have a limit to how much you should endure before doing something else, but bear in mind that no job is perfect, and when you’re starting out you’ll have to pay your dues. There is a normal period of difficulty when initial results are not proportionate to the effort you put in; and when learning a craft there is a period before you reach the intrinsic rewards that make an activity self-sustaining. Don’t give up too soon: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” [Thomas Edison]
15. Satisfying work is often difficult, so, naturally, there will be resistance to it. Even if you’re doing work that’s suited to your talents and interests—work that you are certain you ought to be doing—there will be distracting, discouraging forces to contend with. Overcoming these deterring voices (both internal and external) and getting to work anyway is often what separates the good from the great, the amateur from the professional.
16. Most people don’t find one job and do it forever; deciding what to work on is often an ongoing process. Regularly ask how to best match your work with your skills, interests, and currently valuable opportunities.
17. Career paths are often unpredictable and erratic. Most people can’t anticipate very far in advance the particular job they will settle into, either because unexpected opportunities arise or their interests or values change. This is why it’s often better to develop flexible skills when you’re starting out. It’s also why “a common trait of people who find fulfillment in their careers is a focus on short term planning. … They say: Here’s who I am right now, here are my skills and interests, here are the opportunities in front of me. I’ll try this one. Here’s my hypothesis about what I’ll learn, and a year from now I’ll change because I’ll have learned something new.”
18. Whatever you’re doing, do a good job (even if, at first, you don’t like it). A significant part of work satisfaction comes from the effort or care we put into it, as well as how we treat the people we encounter.
Work mindfully: make a conscious effort to enjoy the journey of vocation, care for your work and fellow workers in the present, and don’t lose yourself in a distant future or trivial measures of success.
19. Appreciate the contribution your work makes to society. Even the least prestigious jobs solve valuable problems for real people and make the world better in some way. This contribution may not always be apparent (or proportionately rewarded) so make an effort to remember and draw upon this source of satisfaction.
20. Take a step back sometimes and ask not “What kind of job do I want?” but “What kind of person do I want to be?”
Tend to your character in the broad sense, and consider how to cultivate the life you want, not merely the job. Let this life-vision inform your choice of vocation.
21. Consider how your economic decisions as a consumer influence the work opportunities that exist.
What values do you communicate (and propagate) through the products and services you employ?
22. Consider how you can help others find work that suits them. Cultivate community. Through your own “social network”—through every person you help or friend you make—you become a valuable resource for those who get to know you. When you progress to positions of leadership, create opportunities for people to get meaningful experience; help guide the young and old toward satisfying work.
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