The greatest career advice
People often ask me for advice on choosing a career, and the following is what I offer to help them clarify their thinking about career matters.
1. Life is all about experience. That is, life is all about tasting and savoring, using your skillful consciousness, the content and structure of every moment.
2. There's "good" experience and there's "bad" experience (or "not so good"). Whether an experience is good or bad, totally depends on the person. That is, a good experience for one person can be a bad experience for another person. For example, I like to work alone for hours without being interrupted. But most people would rather work with other people.
3. Work that you look forward to, is good. Work that you do not look forward to, is not good.
4. Choose work that makes you feel good in the moment. Do NOT choose work that you think will make you feel good in the future (e.g. work that pays well so you can comfortably retire).
5. Do NOT think about money when you choose a career. This would be a severe mistake that will make you lose yourself.
Many people might argue against point #5, so let me clarify what I mean.
"Money" is a mental concept, it does not exist in one's experience. Nobody can "experience" money. However, money can buy certain experiences, although it does NOT and CANNOT guarantee the quality of such experiences.
The quality of an experience depends on the skill with which a person wields or directs her attention. This skill is similar to the skill of a good movie director. Attention is basically thoughts chosen and projected onto the screen of consciousness.
Okay, back to money and why it doesn't matter in the choice of a career.
Just imagine that money did not exist, and that you have the choice to either have a "good" experience 9 to 5, five days a week, or a "bad" experience.
Obviously, you would rather have a good experience 9 to 5, five days a week (no matter how you define "good").
So if you choose a career where you have a good experience for 40 hours every week, then you've won BIG in life. That's because after 5 PM every weekday and during week-ends, you can ALSO choose to have good experiences (since there is no boss telling you what to do).
Your life would be one GIANT good experience!
However, if you choose a career based on money considerations, then chances are, it will be work that you don't consider to be a good experience.
Therefore, you would have a bad experience 9 to 5, five days a week. And you would only be able to have good experiences after 5 PM every weekday and during week-ends.
The problem is that all your best energies have been dissipated every day by the bad job (usually involving a bad boss -- he's not "bad" per se, but he demands too much, offers too few resources, etc.). So in the evening, you don't have energy to create good experiences for yourself.
So what you would do, given this low level of energy, is BUY good experiences from others. As you spend money to buy good experiences, you get into debt, and are then forced to keep working in order to make money to finance those artificially created good experiences.
It then becomes a vicious cycle, and you feel like a hamster running like mad on a spinning wheel.
You begin to experience stress, your body ages faster, you sense the meaninglessness of it all.
All of this happens because you chose a career based on money, rather than joy or quality of experience.
Your mind, which is conditioned by society ever since you were born, will often choose money while your heart will always choose a great experience.
Your heart will always choose "life", which is real whereas "money" is not.
The irony is that people who choose a career based on their passion or talent, will often make much more money than the average person. And work doesn't feel like work to them. Work, for such self-honest people, is a way to experience high-quality moments every day. They don't need "work/life balance" because they have a GREAT life at the office AND a GREAT life at home. It is more like "professional life/personal life harmony."
This harmonization enables their personal life to fuel their professional life, and vice versa. There is no conflict between the two, only synergy.
The above sounds simple enough that any teenager can understand it. However, many adults have a hard time believing that one should make a career choice based on one's heart or passion.
This is simply because their mind (or ego) is too strong, and has silenced their heart. The heart doesn't shout like the mind; it only whispers. So you have to make a real effort to hear what your heart is telling you.
If, as a child, your parents encouraged you to pursue your passion regardless of what society thinks, then it is likely that you will choose an occupation based on your true self. But if your parents placed a strong emphasis on "higher" education, getting a "good and secure job", etc. then you might have lost touch with your heart.
In choosing a career, most people do not need knowledge or guidance as much as courage. The courage to follow one's bliss, despite what society thinks or despite what your conditioned mind says you "should" do.
1. Life is all about experience. That is, life is all about tasting and savoring, using your skillful consciousness, the content and structure of every moment.
2. There's "good" experience and there's "bad" experience (or "not so good"). Whether an experience is good or bad, totally depends on the person. That is, a good experience for one person can be a bad experience for another person. For example, I like to work alone for hours without being interrupted. But most people would rather work with other people.
3. Work that you look forward to, is good. Work that you do not look forward to, is not good.
4. Choose work that makes you feel good in the moment. Do NOT choose work that you think will make you feel good in the future (e.g. work that pays well so you can comfortably retire).
5. Do NOT think about money when you choose a career. This would be a severe mistake that will make you lose yourself.
Many people might argue against point #5, so let me clarify what I mean.
"Money" is a mental concept, it does not exist in one's experience. Nobody can "experience" money. However, money can buy certain experiences, although it does NOT and CANNOT guarantee the quality of such experiences.
The quality of an experience depends on the skill with which a person wields or directs her attention. This skill is similar to the skill of a good movie director. Attention is basically thoughts chosen and projected onto the screen of consciousness.
Okay, back to money and why it doesn't matter in the choice of a career.
Just imagine that money did not exist, and that you have the choice to either have a "good" experience 9 to 5, five days a week, or a "bad" experience.
Obviously, you would rather have a good experience 9 to 5, five days a week (no matter how you define "good").
So if you choose a career where you have a good experience for 40 hours every week, then you've won BIG in life. That's because after 5 PM every weekday and during week-ends, you can ALSO choose to have good experiences (since there is no boss telling you what to do).
Your life would be one GIANT good experience!
However, if you choose a career based on money considerations, then chances are, it will be work that you don't consider to be a good experience.
Therefore, you would have a bad experience 9 to 5, five days a week. And you would only be able to have good experiences after 5 PM every weekday and during week-ends.
The problem is that all your best energies have been dissipated every day by the bad job (usually involving a bad boss -- he's not "bad" per se, but he demands too much, offers too few resources, etc.). So in the evening, you don't have energy to create good experiences for yourself.
So what you would do, given this low level of energy, is BUY good experiences from others. As you spend money to buy good experiences, you get into debt, and are then forced to keep working in order to make money to finance those artificially created good experiences.
It then becomes a vicious cycle, and you feel like a hamster running like mad on a spinning wheel.
You begin to experience stress, your body ages faster, you sense the meaninglessness of it all.
All of this happens because you chose a career based on money, rather than joy or quality of experience.
Your mind, which is conditioned by society ever since you were born, will often choose money while your heart will always choose a great experience.
Your heart will always choose "life", which is real whereas "money" is not.
The irony is that people who choose a career based on their passion or talent, will often make much more money than the average person. And work doesn't feel like work to them. Work, for such self-honest people, is a way to experience high-quality moments every day. They don't need "work/life balance" because they have a GREAT life at the office AND a GREAT life at home. It is more like "professional life/personal life harmony."
This harmonization enables their personal life to fuel their professional life, and vice versa. There is no conflict between the two, only synergy.
The above sounds simple enough that any teenager can understand it. However, many adults have a hard time believing that one should make a career choice based on one's heart or passion.
This is simply because their mind (or ego) is too strong, and has silenced their heart. The heart doesn't shout like the mind; it only whispers. So you have to make a real effort to hear what your heart is telling you.
If, as a child, your parents encouraged you to pursue your passion regardless of what society thinks, then it is likely that you will choose an occupation based on your true self. But if your parents placed a strong emphasis on "higher" education, getting a "good and secure job", etc. then you might have lost touch with your heart.
In choosing a career, most people do not need knowledge or guidance as much as courage. The courage to follow one's bliss, despite what society thinks or despite what your conditioned mind says you "should" do.
posted by Super Peter at 11:02 PM
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