2 Things To Consider When Choosing A Career
Not sure what career you should choose?
Feel like you're stuck in the wrong career?
Or maybe your wondering about a new career?
The truth is, we aren't very good predicting what career to pursue.
I don’t have a statistic for you, but we both know that most people end up in a career that doesn’t have anything to do with their college degree.
And loads of people end up feeling stuck in careers that make them miserable.
I’m convinced our gut instinct about our future careers shouldn’t be trusted. And yet, we still have to make decisions about how to move forward.
What should we do?
Focusing our attention within the box of “career” (a.k.a. “what career should I choose?”) is a poor place to get started. It's also and unnecessarily daunting and overwhelming place to start.
It’s better for us to first consider two things as we make our way into the job market.
1. What gives you energy?
Instead of asking, “what do you want to do,” I prefer the question, “what gives you energy?”
Two Reactions
There are two kinds of reactions when it comes to energy.
An exergonic reaction happens when energy is absorbed and depletes.
An endergonic reaction is when energy is created and released.
All work requires energy from us. We use energy to complete tasks and objectives.
As you give energy to tasks, pay special attention to the kind of work that creates even more energy in you; the kind of work that energizes you as you’re working.
You should also pay attention to the tasks that drain you.
I’m not talking about being tired. All work eventually exhausts our limited mental and physical resources.
There is a kind of tiredness that feels good. A kind of tiredness that feels satisfying. A kind of tiredness that, though your body and mind are exhausted, there is a buzz of energy within. And that energy creates an eagerness to get back to work once rested.
Tasks that create an exergonic reaction in us (absorb and drains our energy) leaves us feeling exhausted externally and internally.
The first step in thinking through what work to pursue is to take notice of tasks that give you energy.
You Might Be Surprised
Hint: the tasks that give you energy might surprise you.
Why does this happen?
It’s because we typically pick a career that sounds interesting and assume that we will enjoy the tasks involved in that career.
To our surprise, we pursue our interesting careers only to find that we’re miserable because the actual work involved drains our energy.
Conversely, a career might not seem interesting at first glance, but we might find that the tasks involved in the work create energy in us.
A Personal Example
I went to college to study music because I wanted to pursue a career as an artist.
The problem is, I hate rehearsals.
Rehearsals make me feel like my soul is leaving my body. They are boring, and I feel incredibly drained after them.
The workload to get a music degree is 90% rehearsals. 💀
I was miserable.
However, I still loved creating music.
I was confused on how to move forward.
Never in a million years would I have pursued business.
That “career” did not sound interesting to me.
I decided to go for a minor in business simply because it was the recommended “smart choice” for music majors (just in case the “music thing” didn’t work out).
I remember the day I found myself energized by the thought of going to my marketing class.
What? I liked marketing?
Yup.
And it turned out that many of my other entrepreneurial business classes also energized me.
Thinking in terms of “career” made me think that I should “pursue music” in a particular and limited way.
Once I started paying attention to the things that energized me, I got a clearer sense of what work to pursue.
If I had continued going after a “music career,” as I understood it, I would likely be lost and miserable today. And I probably wouldn’t be making music of any kind.
Noticing the tasks that energized and depleted me helped me see the tasks I actually enjoy.
I enjoy communicating. I like crafting messages, persuading, and inspiring others.
I can do this task through the avenue of songwriting, singing, speaking, writing, selling, and marketing.
Seeing the tasks that give me energy opened up many career options and helped me better define what work I should try to do.
Gaining clarity is the goal
As a musician, I still need to do rehearsals, and I still mostly hate them.
That’s okay because I don’t believe we will ever find work that requires only the tasks we enjoy.
The point of this exercise isn’t to avoid all the work we don’t enjoy but to better understand ourselves so that we can have a clearer idea of what kind of work to pursue.
Clarity about what gives me energy helps me see that I don’t “hate music,” I just don’t get energy from rehearsals. I get energy from communicating.
I do the task of rehearsing so that I can do the task of communicating.
"Career" and "Passion" = Vague
If you’ll notice from my example, pursuing a career as an artist is too vague.
It’s also too vague to pursue a career based solely on passion (for example: “I’m passionate about singing” or “I’m passionate about encouraging others”).
Thinking in terms of “career” doesn’t provide definition to the work tasks behind that career.
This is true for most careers.
For example, let’s consider being a lawyer. Being a lawyer could include many work tasks: intense reading, studying, arguing, investigating, paperwork, networking, conversations with clients, starting a practice, marketing, etc.
There are many different kinds of lawyers whose work leans heavily on certain kinds of work tasks. The sooner you gain clarity about the work tasks that give you energy, the sooner you’ll know how to move forward in your career.
If you don’t get clarity about the work tasks you enjoy, you’ll either get stuck doing work that drains you or decide to pursue another career.
Start By Paying Attention
If you want to know what kind of work to pursue, start paying attention to the work tasks that gives you energy and the work tasks that drain your energy.
2. Lifestyle Matters
In the last third of the podcast, Cal makes the point that, when it comes to career pursuits, the thing we neglect most often is our desired lifestyle.
For the most part, our careers should serve our lifestyle, not the other way around.
Our work greatly impacts our lifestyle for good or for ill.
It’s important for us to consider and take seriously what certain jobs and careers will mean for our lifestyle.
Better Decision Making
Let’s say, for example, that your desired lifestyle is to be home most nights with your family. It’s important that we consider whether or not the work we are pursuing aligns with this desire.
Or maybe you desire to be around people, culture, and to live in a loft in the city. That desire should play into what kind of career you pursue.
If we don’t let our desired lifestyles hold weight in our decision-making, we can find ourselves tempted to take “great opportunities” for our careers, even though it means adopting a lifestyle that makes us miserable.
This very thing has caused many people to feel lost down the road. For many of us, it takes a while to discover that, though our work is important, it’s often not the most important thing.
The sooner we know what matters to us, the better we will be at making big life decisions (like career pursuits).
Aware of the Cost
Any decision requires a cost. I’m not saying that we should only pursue work that doesn’t cost us anything. I’m saying that we should be aware of the costs.
Have you noticed that the people in our lives seem to see clearer than we can when it comes to the impact a career has on our lifestyle?
We tell our friends and family that we are trying to get a job that we all know will require 70 hours a week. The friends and family want to cheer you on, but internally they’re wondering how that will fit with the fact that you are a big family man with three kids at home.
Or maybe you get offered a great opportunity at a company in the middle of nowhere.
Your friends and family are excited for you; they genuinely think it’s a great job for you. But they’re internally wondering how you will fare because being close to family, friends, and the hustle and bustle of city life seems to be a big part of who you are.
Another Personal Example
I love getting to be home with my wife and kids. I love that we have the flexibility in our lives to travel. I love working with my wife.
We’re often approached with great job opportunities. Some of them make our hearts race because they’re financially lucrative. One of the struggles of being an entrepreneur is needing to stir up income constantly. A paycheck every two weeks can be attractive.
The problem is that most of these jobs would mean a huge shift in our lifestyle.
I’m not unwilling to shift our lifestyle if we need, should, or want to - but this hasn’t been the case.
The best opportunity for us is to lean into the holistic vision we have for our lives.
That vision includes our work, family life, church life, and other lifestyle factors that are important to us.
I know many friends who would hate our desired lifestyle.
Working from home all day sounds miserable to them. They want to be around people at the office. They like not needing to make their own schedule because they enjoy the built-in routine their job provides. And the thought of working with their spouse doesn’t sound appealing.
We all have different desired lifestyles, and our lifestyle choices matter to us.
It won’t benefit you to have a great career that makes you miserable.
As Best As You Can
As best as you can, find work that you enjoy that also allows you to pursue a lifestyle that matters to you.
And be cautious when you find yourself downplaying what a certain career will cost you.
More Options Than You Can Imagine
When it comes to careers, the world is full of more options than you can imagine.
In the last 30ish years internet and globalization have compounded your options even more than before.
That being the case, I encourage you not to think within your limited understanding of career buckets.
There are many creative ways to do things that give you energy and provide for your desired lifestyle.
If you move towards energizing tasks and your desired lifestyle, I think you’ll feel more satisfied with your life choices and less likely to feel “lost” down the road.
