The Only Career Advice Worth Following
Giving myself permission to feel alive
Read Time: 6 minutes
I’m constantly asking myself whether it’s better to focus on finishing projects I’ve already started or follow that which excites me, even if it means adding yet another project to my plate.
I wrote this week’s essay basically to convince myself it’s ok to just keep doing what I’m doing, and I think it worked?
“Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.” - Michelangelo
I’m an expert at starting things. Just look at some of projects I have on the go right now:
I’m developing a new leadership framework that I strongly believe is better than anything out there, though it’s a beast of an undertaking because it involves me learning enough about several different professions (teachers, therapists, influencers, software engineers etc) to translate those lessons to business leaders.
I’m also working on a documentary about my dad’s work as a full-time, unpaid, anti-poverty activist for the last two decades.
I have a half finished documentary about a non-binary artist who is cooking up so many crazy ideas to spread love, it’s hard to keep up.
I’m sitting on a near complete first draft of a novel that I put on the shelf when COVID hit.
I have lots of half finished poems to add to this site, a photography website to refresh, a backlog of short essays to publish, and more lists I want to curate for my Love Lists site.
Let’s not forget my actual paid work as a growth advisor/consultant to three ed-tech startups.
For a long time, I’ve beaten myself up for “biting off more than I can chew,” for starting projects impulsively without thinking them through, for spending so much time on things that don’t scale and won’t generate any income, and for taking so long to get a project to the finish line.
When I try to explain what I do, I know some people (especially my MBA classmates) think I’m crazy. But my willingness to experiment and do things I enjoy seems to draw others in.
A friend recently approached me to start a community with her - yes! Another friend invited me to host a conversation series with him - yes! A former classmate wants to collaborate on a startup for hobbyists - yes!
You could argue that I need to get better at saying no. That I need to focus, be more discerning, and let some projects go. Mainstream advice would certainly agree with you.
But I see potential in everything. Is that so wrong?
I follow what excites me. Will I end up regretting that?
I’m energized by new challenges. Should I really turn this side of me off?
I collect ideas and inspiration faster than I can put them out into the world. As much as that makes my brain spin some days, I know deep down that my approach to work works for me. It’s unconventional, but it makes me feel alive.
I’ve tried to follow allllll the advice out there. I’ve stuck with jobs that gave me hives, because it was worth it to wait for a promotion. Right? I’ve compromised my values working for companies that misled their customers, because I should have “manager” on my resume. Right? I’ve worked for ed-tech companies because helping millions of students is better than helping one. Right?
Wrong.
Whenever I have followed advice that was supposed to make more successful, I found myself feeling less human.
There is so much career advice that only serves to further separate us from who we really are. It deadens us.
Per usual, the only lessons that have really worked for me are the ones that come from nature, not from CEOs or other “successful” people.
Titles do not matter. Would a maple tree have any less value if it was called something else? We are not here to get a progressively better title.
Productivity does not matter. Would you cut down a maple tree if it didn’t produce as much maple syrup as you had hoped it would? We are not here to hit arbitrary benchmarks that serve someone else’s goals.
The variety and number of projects I take on does not matter. Would a maple tree’s syrup improve if it stopped providing food to wildlife like deer? I am not here to limit my creative energy to that which will earn me the most money.
A maple tree doesn’t do anything it wasn’t simply “born” to do.
I don’t actually know what I was “born to do”, but I strongly suspect I was not born to stare at screens all day or to maximize how much money I can earn (though, begrudgingly, I know money goes a long way in this culture).
I do know I feel most energized (and least like an “imposter”!!) when I’m helping others, solving problems, connecting with new people, learning, dancing, writing, exercising, laughing with friends, exploring, and trying new things.
All of my projects are in pursuit of that which energizes me. The number and variety of projects may make me look crazy, but I sure don’t feel crazy. I feel alive.
“I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel.” - Claude Monet