Self-employment Week: 68
When I tell people I quit my first corporate job after just 7 months, they’re shocked.
“How did you know so soon?”
“Because I know myself.”
People take years to make these decisions. To quit, start or transition.
The indecisiveness comes from a lack of awareness of what they actually want.
I think the trick to finding work you would like to do is to know yourself really well.
In our pursuit of the perfect career (lol), we always look outward. Do research, talk to people, and ask for their opinion.
We rarely stop to learn about ourselves more.
Now that I’m on the verge of blowing up my life because I honestly feel kinda lost about how I’d like to spend my time,
I’m not trying to find new projects. I’m trying to find myself.
Why isn’t this current form of work making me feel happy?
How much would I want to work?
How much money would I feel okay making?
How long am I okay not making any money?
Whatever I do has to make sense for me. But the problem is that’s just not how careers work or that’s not how we think it works.
If we want to be a lawyer, this is how our life is going to look.
If we want to be an online coach, your life is going to look like something else.
I believe that the default path doesn’t fundamentally make sense because the ‘same thing’ of anything can’t make sense for everyone.
Finding work you enjoy doing every day has so much more to do than the domain it’s in.
“I want to work in law, or medicine, be a writer, create content online, or be a coach.”
That’s just the beginning.
There is no limit to how specific you can get about designing your work to suit the life you want to live.
There are tons of things I really want to do.
Design indo-western clothes, be a bartender, be a therapist, be a teacher, write a book, or produce long-form media.
But a lot of them currently can’t be flexible enough to accommodate the life I want to live.
So, I have 2 options.
Either I forget about it or I get creative.
By understanding what specifically I think I would enjoy about the thing I want to do, I can find other ways to do the same/similar thing.
If I want to write more, I don’t need to become a content writer, I can raise my hand for more writing tasks with my current client. Or I can start another newsletter to write & publish more.
When you understand what about an activity brings you joy, you know if that’s something you need to pursue as ‘work’ or not.
I feel like I would really enjoy being a bartnerder but I know I don’t want to spend so much time away from home. So why not just learn how to make a few cocktails, have friends over & bartnending for a few nights?
Even understanding more about the kind of life I want to live has been a long process. But a super important one that I’m glad I never gave up on.
When we don't know what we want, we let others tell us & we do what others do. And wonder if it's right. But never knowing. Because you can't know if the decision is right if you don't know what 'right' looks like.
So, we have to find our own right.
And we have to find it again because we change.
So well said! I find I ask other people for their opinion, but I rarely need their opinion. What I need is to listen to myself. Sometimes that going into the unknown, maybe that’s why it’s scary too.
Every edition concludes on such a strong note! The last two lines hit hard.