Have you ever felt that you are in a career or job because you have been doing what you have been doing for quite some time and you are good at it too, not because you like or love what you do now but because you are in the routine humdrum – you are comfortable with what you are doing now. But there is a colossal difference between doing what you love and having a meaningful career than being in a job or profession just because of others’ expectations or because you kind of fit in it like a round peg in a round hole; much similar to the difference between living and existing.

But if you have given thought to it or are ready to explore more into what you would love to pursue, you have taken the first step toward realizing your true talent and moving towards your calling. Some thoughtful insights and practical analysis can help you move towards a larger purpose and a more meaningful career. }

In a very interesting book titled “Don’t Waste Your Talent” by Bob McDonald and Don. E Hutcheson, the authors talk about escaping the dreaded Lemming Conspiracy. Read carefully these thoughts here and see how it applies to your career (if at all);

Throughout our adult lives, we experience regular cycles of stability and change. We launch ourselves into the beginning of our careers.. At first everything seems fine. We may feel that we are a good match for a system at the beginning. The system’s values appear to match our own. Our lives seem interesting and exciting.
But with each passing year, we grow and change. We become different on the inside. We have new ideas, meet new people, have new goals and new wants. But the systems in which we remain do not change their views of us. To our systems (and this includes out family systems) we are always the same. Our systems assume we have remained on the same path, and that we have the same commitment to the systems’ values and rules that we always had.
Systems have only a limited view of us. We are whole people, but systems see only limited roles and functions. How many middle-aged men have awakened in the middle of the night with the nightmarish realization that their lives feel utterly meaningless and their energies re being wasted? How many middle aged women have suddenly seen their lives lose meaning when their children leave home? Or how many to build a family? One 45-year old women we know, a successful marketing director, realized suddenly one say that she was living the life that others expected of her – not the life that would express her own true self. Her family hard-driving professional women wake up in their late thirties and realize they have forgotten of origin had blinded her to life’s alternatives.

Some food for thought as the year ends and a new one begins. Are we ready to evaluate our systems and aspirations?
What would you do to this New Year to make a change that accelerates you toward a more satisfying career and happier life?