Let`s face it, Alain de Botton may not be the most handsome guy in the world. I find his baldness is a tad disturbing. He is indeed an accomplished writer and social entrepreneur. I must have watched this presentation about 20 times already. Alain makes very valid points in it and he`s simply brilliant. Cool accent, too.
Ok. Career crisis. I guess we`ve all had them at some point.
Definition of crisis (shamelessly copy-pasted from merriam-webster.com): "An unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome."
Definition of career(also shamelessly copy-pasted from merriam-webster.com): "A field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life," "a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling." The phrase Permanent calling sounds great....
So, I guess a career crisis is then the point where one feels that our calling, pursuit or that we do for a living may in some way about to change or be in need of a change; therefore causing anxiety or distress. Simple, yet deep stuff.
Have YOU had a career crisis? A short discussion on causes in my next installment.
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Hello Harold,
ReplyDeleteI put some comments about your blog after listening to the buy's speech.
As for me, I have 2 parts of the meaning of work. One is obviously for living. The other one is that I want to have some responsibilities as a member of society and also improve my technical skill and also communication skill with colleagues, clients and so on.
I've been thinking about what I want to do as my job since I graduated from my university but, I haven't found yet. I am interested in few things but, I think they are difficult to do as a job. That's my big problem!
So I decided to find something happy in my current job everyday and try to be interested in my job and what the company does. It is totally fine with very small thing. For example, I helped someone and the person said to me 'Thank you'. Ｉｔ’ｓ one of small happiness in a day. Whenever my motivation goes down, I try to remind myself of it.
However I think it's very important to think about my job, goal and future even I cannot find exact answer. I should keep doing that. Finally I would like to achieve my own goal.
Sorry, my comments may have lots of grammatical mistakes, be unclear and a little hard to understand for you.
Relax, refresh and just enjoy your short holidays!
Chika
Chika:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I think most people occasionally feel confused about the meaning of work and what career path to take. I just read about an accountant making $125,000 a year who quit her job to do what she really likes, helping children. She is making 1/4 of what she used to, but she is happy. That is so inspiring.
It takes lots of courage to leave a high paying job, a "comfortable" life and the security of stable career to do something we are passionate about.
I think we all need to find "our calling," something that to do that satisfies us and fulfills our need for meaning in life. I hope you find your calling. It`s never late for that.