Career planning

I would like to say I have been productive recently. That I have achieved high levels of work and done more than before. I would love to be able to give you a 10-step list with something that will help you out today.

I can’t do that unfortunately.

What I have been thinking of recently – between my slightly melancholy moods – is about what I should do with after I am done with university, and why I have not enjoyed it. Perhaps my last post regarding university was written in a moment of undeserved frustration.

I believe I have discovered two things:

1. Don’t plan too much.
2. Don’t take things too seriously.
   

The fallacy of planning
I came across a psychology study regarding how people choose things in advance. It was regarding sandwiches.

The study involved two groups of people and their lunches. One group had to choose their lunch menu for the week. The other group chose whatever they wanted on the day. What the study found out was that for the people who chose in advance, they assumed they wanted variety. For the people who chose on the day, they tended to stick with the same sandwich every time over the week.

And guess which group were the least happy? The variety group!

The same could be said with planning a career. Perhaps it is better to take it as it comes as opposed to trying to figure out some grand plan.

I think not following the above is likely to result in general unhappiness. So I have a new ‘plan’, which is in essence, a plan not to plan.

Devil’s Advocate – planning skills
What I do think is useful however is to plan to learn new skills and new experiences. The new skills should be learnt through the new experiences – in essence, the skills gained should be a welcome side effect to the things you tried out.
As a result, I think I will try and seek out the following experiences over the next year:

• Learn skydiving – not just one jump, but a series of jumps.
• Get back into scuba diving – take a holiday somewhere cool.
• Get my motorcycle licence – and maybe go touring round Europe.
• Set something up and let it grow on its own – I have no idea what yet, but it could be anything from a business venture to social entrepreneurship.

If you’ve got any suggestions as to what I should add to this list, do let me know!

Career Path: Fight for honour, or playfight for fun?

I had another quick thought when I was walking down the street just now. Lest I forget it, here it is.

Is it better, in a career:

• To fight for something honourable?
• To fight for something enjoyable?

The question for me is, when I am 70 years old or so, looking back on some of the things I have done in my life, will it have been better to have taken the hard struggle (such as working in politics or public service), fighting for something which would be traditionally seen as noble and worthwhile, or alternatively, to fight in a career for something enjoyable - like working really hard to make people have a fun time, whether it's by opening a skydiving school, working in travel and/or tourism, or becoming some form of comedian or entertainer?

In the first example, the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley springs to mind:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of Circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of Chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

SOURCE: Wikipedia

Now sure, the stoic "captain of the soul" has a great deal of honour. I used to only aspire to be this kind of person, unconquerable, striving for what was great and good. But to be honest, I wasn't happy.

Will I be more satisfied if I work hard at something which might not be described as so "honourable"? Is my ego just trying to force me to create a legacy, which I will not be able to view once I die and may not even be built?

Or should I go around and aim to work hard to put a smile on my face and the face of others? Not in a clownish sense necessarily, but in another way - whether through art, entertainment, or giving people experiences which move them in a profound and positive way?