Take That Job That Falls in Your Lap?! Why ""Follow your passion" is often bad advice

If there’s a motto that career counselors, celebrities, and pop psychologists would agree on, it’s “Follow your passion!”  Yet a case can be made for taking virtually whatever job drops in your lap and using it as a springboard to a better job and career. 

I make the case in my PsychologyToday.com article today. 

Moments of Moment

Adolph Hitler aspired to be an artist but was rejected by Vienna's Academy of Art, purportedly by a Jew.  If Hitler had been admitted, just perhaps the Holocaust might not have occurred.

Each of us have had moments that have changed our lives' path. Sometimes, those changes are not unidirectional.
 
I discuss in my PsychologyToday.com article today. 

Days of Our Work Lives: An unvarnished look at work today: Part II: Susan's Saga. Episode 3: Explorations

Days of Our Work Lives

Part II: Susan's Saga 

EPISODE 3 Explorations

In the previous episode,  Susan's career counselor gave her a common-sense but welcomed homework assignment: explore. "Planned serendipity," the counselor called it.

That's just what Susan was ready for, so she dove in. First, it was yoga. Or I should say, first she bought a $165 Lululemon yoga outfit, $68 yoga mat, and---I'm not kidding--$38 yoga towel. But while the mountain and fighter poses were fine, even the supposedly easy dog-bending-down pose was, well, infelicitous to her long-dormant body. "I can't believe some of them--They're like Cirque du Soleil contortionists." And yoga as a chance to do career networking? Not exactly: All of her classmates seemed less oriented to career than to the upward-facing-dog pose, and the conversation never got more career-related than which bodyworker to hire to heal them from yoga.

But Susan liked being physical, albeit a little less so, so she signed up for a hip-hop dancing class. But her hop wasn't so hip and conversation was impossible in the next-door lounge. Susan thought, "Twenty minutes in here and you're deaf. Maybe the owner is an audiologist trying to drum up some business."

Okay, so maybe that was the wrong kind of dancing. Figuring she'd merge her dancing desire with her spiritual searching, she went on a retreat, the highlight of which was moonlight nude shamanic dancing. She couldn't make herself take her clothes off. Hell, she couldn't even make herself stop laughing as they waved sage brush and incense as their bodies swayed and bounced in the moonlight.

Working on Rent with the kids in the middle school kept her grounded, although there was one kid she wanted to pillory. Right before Easter vacation, that kid decided he was going to try to climb up the set---He made it halfway up before the canvas tore, right in the middle of the Empire State Building. 

She felt like resurrecting him but instead attempted an Easter vacation rebirth or at least rejuvenation on a whitewater rafting trip in Costa Rica. Should she go on the Class II, Class III, or most challenging Class IV? She decided to be brave---and fell out of the boat, bobbing down the river. Thank God for a branch that stuck out. She grabbed on just before she would have been in need of resurrection. 

Back in Sage River, Susan sat by the fire, reflecting on her explorations and realized she needed a different sort of exploration. So she joined Rotary.

The next episode is posted HERE.

Days of Our Work Lives: An unvarnished look at work today: Part I: David's Saga: Episode 6: Brainstorm

Days of Our Work Lives

Part I: David's Saga

Episode 6

Brainstorm

In the previous episode, David's idea of selling meatball sandwiches met an early demise upon seeing the thousands of regulations in the California Retail Food Code.

So David and Susan were back in brainstorming mode:

"Maybe I should think big, like start a school?" David offered.

"If starting a meatball cart meant thousands of regulations, what do you think start a school would require?"

 "If I can't beat em, maybe I should join 'em: become a government restaurant inspector. I'm sure there'd be plenty inspecting that was needed or at least required."

 "How about a less dramatic change, a small pivot from marketing research on t-shirts to something a little more meaningful like market research on drugs?"

"Legal ones?  Don't have the background. I'd have to go back for years of calculus, physics, biology. I don't think so."

"What about pot?" There's a big nationwide legalization push. The media's totally pushing it."

"I've turned around on that: Legalization increases use, big-time, including kids. And the dangers are far worse than the advocates would have us believe. Plus, the black market wouldn't go away: Because legal pot is heavily taxed and only to adults, the black market would grow because it sells pot cheaper and will focus on marketing to kids. So legalization merely increases the number of ways for kids to get pot."

"Let's get high," Susan chuckled.

"Maybe I should take a month off, do some new things around some new people, let planned serendipity happen: take a short course in something, like photography or voiceover maybe."

She said sarcastically, "Oh that will help you make a living. Ten million people pay 10 grand to learn voiceover and 9,999,990 never make enough to even pay for the training let alone make a middle-class living. And nine of the ten that do were already successful actors."

"I could get go to MeetUps, join some committee at church..."

"You could join Sierra Club, go on birdwatching hikes and stuff."

"The only people I'd meet would be retired tree sitters. Not exactly the best source of career leads."

"Hey, we could go on a cruise. You meet lots of rich, well-connected people on a cruise"

"And gain 10 pounds. Just what I need after my heart attack. By the way, those monsters at Blue Cross still are asking for more documentation before they pay the bills. I think they're trying to give me another heart attack. Seriously, I do hear insurance companies try to keep stalling and asking for more documentation hoping the patient will just give up or die. Monsters."

"Your father suggested you join Rotary."

"What, and wear a fez?"

That's the Shriners. Rotary is just a bunch of middle-class people, mainly small business owners, who get together to raise money for charity and to network...Actually, the thought of taking a few months to sort things out is sounding pretty good. I've been working non-stop ever since I was a teenager."

How about one month? Objects at rest tend to...

Okay, a month. A lot can happen in a month.

HERE is the next episode.