Attend college, work, marry, save money and buy a house so you can have kids, retire and die – do you take issue with this as your life narrative? If “no,” then congratulations, you can stop reading because you’ve got it all figured out.
For those who have and continue to grapple with their career, your authenticity and courage is commendable – let’s try asking a different question. Instead of replaying the archaic conundrum of what we’ve done, what we are doing and what we are going to do, let’s try understanding how we have been choosing to do it all. Especially, if you believe that your career is truly a journey rather than a destination.
I share two corresponding categories of observations, I have made throughout my career and life, of how people choose to navigate their careers. The commuter approaches their career by relying on the certainty of comfort and security so they can maintain homeostasis. The crusader is obsessed with adventure and leads an energetic career journey of discovery.
A note to the reader: think, do not react. Neither judge any specific type of character, industry, organization or role. Neither is good, bad, right, wrong, ugly or pretty. The aim here is not to evaluate, inform or advise, but to provoke new thinking and ask new questions by illuminating contrast.
Insight may lie in our awareness of how we do things rather than what we choose to do.
Where do your choices sit? Why?
How do you know you are truly walking your walk or taking the escalator?
Is your journey truly such or is it a really an ostentatious commute?
Life is happening now, it’s your move…