Once upon a time - earlier this year - I found myself asking the man in the mirror “What are you doing with your life? Is the job that you do really the career that you want for yourself? What is the career that you want?”. I’m fairly confident that if you are reading this, you’ve questioned yourself at some point in your life, too. If I’m wrong about that, please please share your secret!
If you’re like me, that questioning comes frequently. After all, research shows that somewhere deep down, we all have a “deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose”. In other words, as humans, we innately want and even need a sense of accomplishment or belonging to something greater than ourselves. This is a concept thoroughly explored in Daniel H. Pink’s book “Drive” which is beautifully summarized here.
For thousands of years, humans needed jobs in order to be seen as positive contributors to society. But as more and more research, like that explored by Pink, alters the way we see ourselves and think about our happiness and motivation, how do we find the job or career that gives us this satisfaction and belonging?
“Do a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” - someone who had an awesome job, apparently
The truth is, this cliche - though pretty accurate if you think about it - in reality does not apply to most people. Most people are struggling with the lower tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Most people are struggling to find food, to have clean water, to pay rent. Struggling to keep friends and family and anyone most dear to them safe and happy. As a first-generation American of Filipino immigrant parents, I’m all too familiar with the lower tiers of this hierarchy, and to this day continue to see my family struggle. I know. We all have our stories. But if you’re struggling with these things, how can you possibly know what you love without having the chance to experience it?
With this blog, I intend to answer this question for myself -- one job at a time. With this blog, I hope to shed some light on various jobs and careers that I, and maybe you, had only dreamed of. And I hope that you join me on this journey to find what makes you innately satisfied. If anything, I hope you at least find solace in my failures and motivation in my successes.
Here’s to exploring one job a year.
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