How to Start Today

The Future is now!

I recently helped at a conference where teens were considering career choices. Giving career advice is something that should be approached cautiously and not taken lightly. In the process of preparing, I learned some things!

“Know yourself!”

The Greek Philosopher Pausanius and later Plato, gave this advice when the world was a simpler place. The world may have been simpler, but apparently, the human psyche was not! Before considering even a time-limited career, it is reasonable that some introspection should take place.

Are you a helper—or a taker? Perhaps the world needs both! Certainly, the individual is more fulfilled if they recognize who they are and what makes them function happily. We are not all Mother Teresa, nor are we all Jeff Besos. No one is all one or the other. Who you are is important when trying to determine what you want to do.

The next question is obvious…What is important to you? Money? Or Helping people?

This may seem obvious, we all want to make money and live a comfortable life, right? Ah, but this is a subjective question! How much money does it take to be comfortable? What exactly is a comfortable life? Do you need money to have a comfortable life? There are hundreds of stories about persons who have valued a pursuit of money as a goal, and found that many other things they valued have slipped away. In the same way, some who have valued the intangible to an extreme have found themselves in desperate situations. The mindset and heart-set of the individual always comes into play. Some of us can be happy with nothing, while there are others for whom nothing makes them happy!

How much uncertainty can you handle?

Some careers are filled with uncertainty. Every day is a crap shoot, a make-or-break event. No two days are the same. There is always something new, a challenge with every tic of the clock, or turn of the market, or whatever determines the day and its outcome. If that uncertainty thrills you, then a repetitious 9-5 job may not work for you. But if uncertainty stresses you out in a bad way, your career decision should take that into consideration, Do you thrive on stress? Appreciate it, and then use it to your advantage. Love a peaceful, predicable routine? There is a place in the world for you, too.

How to decide?

How to decide who you are, what you want and what you are willing to put yourself through to get it…that is the question! Not only 18 year olds ask these questions, but from my observation, it is an ongoing process for most people. Our culture has defined this process as “Reinventing Yourself”. The observable examples are the entertainers in the public eye. Imagine if they are changing their ‘on-stage’ persona, what might be happening behind the scenes! The same process is occurring constantly in the general population.

Due to the pandemic and other factors, many have had the opportunity to reevaluate their lives and careers. Job changes occur. Explorations and even depressive dropping out are examples of this process. These changes should not necessarily be seen as a negative thing, but rather as new answers to old questions.

I propose a way to answer those questions. It is actually a very simple answer. Read! That’s it. Just read. Read everything you can get your hands on. Let what you read inspire you. Or educate you. Or reassure you. Or open new doors for your thinking. Read biographies of people you admire. And read a few biographies of people you hate. Read psychology and discover who and why people, even you, are and why they are. Read history and see how it has affected our world and our culture. Read about life in other places. Read about your hometown. Read the works of the “great thinkers”. Were they right -on? Or were they delusional?

Read what interests you…it might be a quick read. Slog through what seems boring and not applicable to your life. Can’t afford it? There are libraries everywhere…no cost. There are low cost, recycled book stores, where books people have already read are just waiting for you to read them. There are free and exchange mini libraries in front of many houses. Take one—leave one! No cost.

Oh, I get it! No time. Watching something you really don’t like on the TV is stealing your time,,,,and maybe your future or your life. Take that one hour, or even 30 minutes and read something. Time will fly. No commercials, in fact, just read during commercials. The journey of a thousand miles is completed one step at a time. A book of 500 pages is read one page at a time.

So I learned to answer these questions by learning who I am, what I value, and what I am willing to do to get to my goals. The answers are not instant, but they are not hard. They are constantly evolving and morphing with the circumstances and my growth. Your answers are yours alone. Read and explore until you find them.

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Comments and observations? Please send them to me. Karenmac1999@hotmail.com