When You’re Told, “You Could Do Anything”

When looking for a career, your friends and even a counselor might say, “You could do anything.” They’re trying to be supportive if not a downright cheerleader, believing you’re so bright and motivated that you could pursue virtually any career.

But often, that’s not helpful because it doesn’t narrow your choices. Or you may have doubts as to whether you can do anything or even one thing very well.

The questions I ask in my Psychology Today article today may help you narrow to a wise choice of career:

Laziness: Its genesis, development, and amelioration

In my Psychology Today article today, I describe a pattern I commonly see among my clients. How they became lazy and what they've done to improve.

Address-and-Distract: An underappreciated tool for coping

COVID and the political and racial roiling can make an already stressed modern life cross the line into overwhelm.

For example, even if COVID hasn’t touched you, the fear fanned by the media and your seeing everyone in masks racing away from you if within 10 feet contributes to the discombobulation.

A perhaps under-discussed antidote to stress and overwhelm is something my clients and, okay, I, have found helpful: address and distract. I describe it in my Psychology Today article today.

Surviving and Maybe Thriving as a Contrarian

Some people grew up in a family that valued conformity. Other families venerated rebellion or at least making the case for a contrarian position: “Well, on the one hand X, but on the other hand, Y.”

Similarly, in some schools and colleges, students are pretty much expected to be conformist, to spout the orthodoxy. Perhaps you recall being tempted to make comments and write essays that comport with the teacher’s or professor’s bias. The tendency to reward conformity extends into adulthood: often in the workplace as well as in relationships.

It’s easier to go through life as a conformist. By definition, more people will agree with you. That both feels good and makes you more likely to make friends and to get ahead in your career.

But what if you tend to be contrarian? It is for those who are leading that more difficult life that my Psychology Today article today offers thoughts.

Four Career Musts in the COVID Era

 I’ll be giving a virtual talk to Berkeley Rotary today entitled Four Career Musts in the COVID Era. Perhaps you might benefit from a summary of what I’m planning to say, so I posted on as my Psychology Today article today.

Final Wishes: Clarifying and sharing your intentions

Few people like thinking of their demise, but getting clear on your final intentions and letting the right person(s) know about them can be a last great accomplishment and contribute to your legacy.

Of course, you know that you need a will or trust. My Psychology Today article today lists issues that are less often considered or conveyed to the loved one(s) who will help ensure that your final desires are fulfilled.

Life Lessons from Looking Back

We’re more likely to improve our life by looking forward, and taking the next baby step.

But an occasional look back may provide lessons for moving forward. Perhaps the prompts I offer in my Psychology Today article today will help.