What happens when your main motivation for advancement isn't really motivating you anymore? Up until this point in my life, it's been all about the paycheck. Money money money. When you don't have it, it's something you obsess over and make all sorts of lists of things you'll get once you hit the big time. Once you've gotten the important things off that list (hello computer, kayak, and bicycle!) and you're still living below your income, what drives you? You can always keep the same goal and just up your lifestyle until you're back to living between paychecks, but that's just not appealing. Do you then start striving for titles, ensuring that you'll be Senior VP of Something Or Other? Do you try to find the job that has the most flexibility in hours? The least amount of work? The least stress? The greatest good to your company? To society as a whole?
I've always been the type of person who needs specific goals to shoot for, and I'm still casting about to find new ones after all my changes in the last year. Let's take for granted it's got to be a job you enjoy and makes you happy, but what do YOU shoot for in your career?
Posted by Janine at July 07, 2004 09:16 AMHere's my goal:
I want to get a job that has the freedom to allow me to work from home. Then I can get a house on a beach and work from my loft-office, where I can watch whales pass by.
Heck, I even found the beach this last weekend.
My Little Grasshopper, Try it all. In time, You will find what makes you happy.
Posted by: Aunt Mar on July 8, 2004 10:01 PMif i had the job nailed down, i'd start looking for all the little things i want to do. like make stained glass or learn to work a video camera or whisk my husband away to points west one weekend a month.
Posted by: abby on July 9, 2004 02:33 PMI was waiting for this day to come. I figured it would be within a year of the wedding. All your life you have been so busy getting where you were going, that you never had time to see an aerial view of the passage. You are one of the lucky ones that figured out the words of an old song before it was too late.
The song from the 50s was "Is that all there is?" At first it's about a child at a carnival absorbed in the sights and sounds, but seeing how quick it ends.Then it fast forwards to the adult who looks at all their material possessions that they worked so hard to accumulate and asking the child's question again.
Find yourself one or more worthy causes so you know who you are REALLY working for. Then, when you have a bad day at work, just write a check for the amount of a day's pay. You'll love saying to your boss, "those Guatemalan orphans are getting a pile of toys and books today!" How sweet it is.