We all know that confidence is key to attraction. In developing high self-esteem and empowering self-confidence, you need to give very serious thought to your line of employment. The ideal vision for your working life is that you should be employed doing something that you truly love. If you are just working to pay the bills, and tolerating numerous indignities to do so, then it becomes very hard to retain much self-esteem. It will be constantly under attack, and your confidence in yourself must decline at the same time.
You may be thinking, “There’s more to life than work.” I agree. If we spend every waking hour working, working, working, we’d be no better than an ant. Life is about love and happiness. The trick is to do something you love doing, and just happen to get paid for doing it. In this way, it doesn’t feel like work.
SO WHAT IS THE PERFECT CAREER
Of course, money is an important factor but it isn’t the only thing we need to consider. There are two other important resources that we constantly juggle in our lives; time, and health (physical and mental). We usually pay one or two of these resources in order to earn the other one.
For example in a job we give our time, and sometimes our health, in exchange for money. If we want more time we usually have to take time off work, losing money in the process. Recovering your health and looking after yourself takes a little time investment, and sometimes a bit of money. So when considering a career, these are the three things that we need to consider. How much do they pay? How much time does it take from me? What’s the cost to my mental and physical health? When these three factors are in the perfect ratio, you’ve found your perfect job.
Let’s start with money. The financial NEED to remain at a job, i.e. the “wage slavery” aspect of employment that most people succumb to, is one of the most disempowering things you can do to yourself. Whilst you remain in this trap, it is very hard to think positively about yourself or your future. If you put the most importance in money, you will end up in the most stressful or boring job available to you. You can’t keep that up forever. Eventually you’ll be back at square one, searching google for whatever brought you to this blog post. This should come secondary to most important resource of all; health. In particular, your mental health. In short, happiness.
SO HOW DO WE FIND HAPPINESS IN A CAREER?
It was Joseph Campbell who said that you must “follow your bliss”. This means finding out what you most love to do in life, and then determining a way to do it for a living. You will find life comes to you easily, as if you were always meant to take that path. It may sound easier said than done, but it IS possible if you are prepared to approach the matter with determination and persistence. Yes, it may take some sacrifices initially. However, in the end, the rewards of living life authentically will far exceed any perceived losses. Happiness at work can generally be found in these three places;
- The first step involves determining what you would love to do for a living. An excellent question you could ask yourself in this respect is; “If I had all the money in the world, so that finances were no longer a concern, what would I do with my life?”
Spending the rest of your life in the beaches of Barbados is NOT the answer!
You will find that all the great successes in life were unstoppable. They would have done their work even if there was no money involved. Indeed, the classic proof of this is that those who do go on to make a lot of money continue tirelessly with their work. Indeed, they work far harder than their less successful colleagues. If money was the only issue, they would stop working once they had made enough. Hence, those people who ask why such a person keeps working when they’ve made so much money already, have completely missed the point.
- Now, although doing something you love is a big part of it, it’s not the whole story. Some things we enjoy would get boring if we have to do it every day.Maybe you enjoy drawing, but you enjoy drawing what YOU want to draw. Becoming an illustrator and spending the day realising other people’s ideas might not be as fun, or you may come home and not want to spend yet another hour of the day drawing. Maybe it won’t be like this. Only you can tell. Perhaps you always enjoy cooking, but would you still find it fun after the third year of doing it as a job?The missing piece of this puzzle is to find your flow. We all need the right amount of challenge in our lives. Too little and we will be full of apathy and boredom. Too high and with too little skill to match it can fill our lives with anxiety and stress. But once we find something that’s challenging enough and we have the skillset to meet it, that’s when we end up in the ‘flow zone’.
- Interacting with your work colleagues fills so much of your day. Does it not make sense to find a vocation filled with people you would like to be with?This may come naturally. For example, if you’re a creative person and want to work in a creative environment such as a theatre, you will generally find that the theatre is also full of creative people. If you think quite logically, a workshop or warehouse will probably be full of like-minded people. A career with animals will generally be full empathetic people. Certain types of environments tend to attract certain types of people.Who knows, this may even lead to you finding the woman of your dreams. Spending time around people who share your passion can often lead to romance.Better yet, if you set out to work for yourself and be your own boss, you don’t need to worry about office politics. If you prefer being in the company of yourself and thrive when given total control, maybe this is the path for you.
Now, let’s talk about the third and final resource. It’s about time! Well, only you can tell how much time you want to spend on your career and how much time you want to keep to yourself. Maybe you have a family or many other passions that can’t all fit into one career. It’s important to keep this in mind. Some industries offer a more flexible schedule while others are more stable.
The arts, for example, tend to be less set in stone and more nebulous. Working on your own can often necessitate going the extra mile and putting in far more hours than an office job. This comes with inherent risk but the reward is usually worth it. Other people may prefer the stability of a 9-5 and simply climb the promotion ladder. But once you find a job that involves doing something you love doing, the amount of time that it feels like your career is taking from you will go down significantly. Are you really giving up your time if that time would be spent doing this thing anyway?
So, now we know what the perfect career for you might need to look like. How do we achieve it?
FIRST, DETERMINE YOUR ANSWER TO THESE QUESTIONS
What would YOU do if time and money were not an issue at all?
What is the one thing you have always dreamed of doing or being?
If you are in a job that destroys your self-esteem and undermines your confidence, you want to trade it in as soon as possible for the job you desire the most. Give some serious thought to this. Freeing yourself from wage slavery is possibly the best thing you can ever do for yourself.
Behind all this is what Napoleon Hill called a “definite major purpose”. You should give considerable time to finding one major aim to which you can dedicate your life. From this, your work should ultimately flow in a harmonious and congruous manner. Without this major purpose in the daily work you do, it is hard to remain happy in it.
Of course, you can claim that your definite major purpose is to feed your family and keep a roof over their heads. Yes, this is a major purpose, and it will doubtless keep you employed. However, it may not ultimately keep you happy at your job. If your job is not congruent with what your life is all about at its deepest level, if you secretly feel that you sold yourself out, it is nearly impossible to maintain high levels of self-esteem and inner confidence.
Once you have your goal in sight, it’s time to start your journey towards achieving it. Most people cannot simply drop their current jobs. However, everyone can start to save money to support a period of transition. Through doing this for some time, you could eventually have six months, or even a year of salary, saved. Imagine what that alone would do for your self-esteem. Knowing you have money in the bank makes you far less susceptible to employer bullying than you would otherwise be.
Meanwhile, it’s time to begin studying your newly chosen field and investigate ways in which you can break into it. What do you need? Are there certain qualifications employers are looking for? Will you need a particular skill or arm yourself with knowledge? In today’s world, there is no excuse.
You can absolutely get a fulfilling career without a degree. All you need is the right knowledge. If your dream employer specifically requires it, then maybe it’s time to go back to college or university. There may be government grants in your area and field of study – it’s worth checking! But some of the world’s richest CEO’s are actually drop-outs, so it’s definitely not a necessity.
Careers like nursing will obviously require a solid time investment from the beginning, whereas creative pursuits may need a few courses, and practice, practice, practice.
All of human knowledge is also available on the internet – much of it for free. Youtube is full of free courses and tutorials for anything from 3D modelling to investing and everything in between. The best courses of course will cost more, but an investment in your future is priceless. Arming yourself with the right skillset and knowledge is more possible than ever.
There are even free analogues of software that would otherwise cost you a bomb, making starting today totally possible. For Word, there is WPS Office. For Photoshop, there’s Gimp, and for Illustrator, there’s Inkscape.
From the moment you take the very first step to career fulfilment, you will find your confidence improve. You will give yourself hope for the future, and that’s invaluable. As you take the journey of putting in that 1% each day you will find your life improve immeasurably. Remember this. Nothing succeeds like persistence. There is always a way to achieve whatever you wish for in life, as long as you are determined. Whatever path in life you choose, I wish you the best of luck.
If you require further assistance on lifestyle and dating, look no further than the wealth of articles on my website.