Finding the Best Job

Contrary to popular belief, ambition doesn’t require lot of time and constant busyness. It requires hard work at times, but there’s an important line between quantity and quality that many overlook as long as they stay busy. People love to stay busy because it brings a sense of safety from being called lazy. However, all busy-work is useless if we abandon our health and neglect our families in the pursuit of feeling accomplished.

The first job we do is likely not the job we should choose to advance within. It’s a good idea to take some time and think outside the box. In my experience teaching, I’d usually ask the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” to my students. Of course, they would answer the typical answers of doctor, lawyer, vet, engineer, teacher, athlete and so forth. Kids don’t have much variety to choose from because they usually only know what their parents and friend’s parents do for work.

When we’re older, we have to find out the unusual jobs that may be unknown to us. There are a lot of jobs out there that you won’t simply find out until you start exploring. The Internet has infinite resources, we being to meet new people, and the friends we have also get connected to further random people. The most verbal we are with our direction (or lack of direction), the more surprised we may be to find someone who has an idea we’ve never thought of before.

I honestly can’t count how many jobs I’ve had in over my lifetime, but the closest I came to happiness professionally was when I became a fitness instructor in my early twenties. I worked as an independent contractor through various fitness centers. It was the most freedom I had professionally to make my own schedule and decide how much to charge my clients. Unfortunately, my lack of experience and understanding in marketing caused me to move on and eventually move back into the “safer” steady paying jobs.

I just couldn’t find happiness with the jobs I had since then, and I just kept searching and searching and searching. I searched until finally I broke out of the typical 9-5 and I knew that working self-employed as a freelance photographer was the best-suited work for me. I became educated on marketing basics, which was not hard due to all the free online resources available. Things soon began to take off, and passion turned hard work into a walk in the park. I finally enjoyed what I did.

Reaching the top of the ladder within any given corporation isn’t going to guarantee happiness. If you believe in what you are doing and what your workplace stands for, then by all means support it by working hard. However, if you just can’t seem to fit in, then think about your passion - talk about it, search about it and pursuit it. There’s going to be information from someone, somewhere out there about the exact thing you love to do.

For further related reading, please check out: All is Well.