After My Dream Career
SHOULD I GO AFTER MY DREAM CAREER?
It is common for us to be confronted with what appears to be a very unpleasant option when determining what to do with our lives: choosing between following our passions and following the safe road. It is the latter that entails the gradual mastery of a dependable vocation; we will become bored — but we will never be dismissed in this position. Meanwhile, the former is a high-wire act in which we fantasize about earning a living doing something we truly enjoy while also fearing poverty and disgrace.
When we examine the concept of safety in greater depth, we may find that the choice is less acute than it appears at first glance. So long as we are doing something we despise or are pursuing something out of timidity, we will never be truly secure. We will be at a distinct disadvantage in the highly competitive conditions of modernity because our backup career – the one we choose out of fear – will be someone else's primary ambition; our plan B will be someone else's plan A, which puts us at a distinct disadvantage in terms of the amount of energy and focus we are able to summon. The'safe' option may end up ruining our lives.
As opposed to this, what we love is what we are preoccupied with anyhow, and we would do it for free if we could – which significantly enhances our odds of mastery while simultaneously decreasing the cost of failure. A decade of uneven outcomes on a passion project is fundamentally less burdensome than a lifetime of unspectacular returns in a field that you despise and despise you.
Finally, it is not very safe to use the one life we have to force ourselves into things we know we will not enjoy — only to keep existing — because it is not very safe to use the one life we have to force ourselves into things we will not enjoy. This isn't safety; it's masochism on a grand scale. We may all have to suffer through the educational system for the first two decades of our lives, but at some point, we are permitted to leave school; at some point, we need to have a chance to answer the question of what life could be about if we are not only guided by obedience and shyness.
It is not usual for people to have a strong sense of purpose; in fact, most of us do not. However, if we are fortunate enough to have one, we are putting ourselves in danger of losing far more than we should by failing to heed its call.