Deciding which career to choose has to be the single most difficult decision of today’s youth. It shapes or breaks our future. It is a fact that achieving anything is possible now. We can dream high and when we work hard and right for it, we would get to achieve and live it. But you and I both know, it is not as simple as that. It is easy said than done. Dreaming is one thing and dreaming right is another.
To succeed in life, having a career that fits you, your personality, your basic traits and skills is a necessity. Numerous people out there spend their entire life pursuing and working hard for a job which they have barely any interest in, and the reason is as simple as being afraid to take risks. And then there are those, unaware of what they really want, unaware of what skill they possess, unaware of how they could be way better at something other than what they are doing right now.
We also need to consider the demands of society.
The mere thought of us not being in control of our life, our goals and our dreams could be very scary. To know how there are so many other things that get to influence OUR career choices and our future, but it is one of the many bitter truths we just have to work with.
This makes deciding on a career one of the most difficult decisions a person has made in their life. This is that one decision keeps the probability to either make or break a person’s entire life and there is no tolerance of even a slight mistake; which only adds up more pressure on us when we are struggling to chose what we want to do in our lives.
As a youth of this generation, who is still in midst of making her career, I have encountered numerous amounts of doubt about the field of my choice, doubt about my capability, fear of choosing wrong, and so many things that were only making it harder for me to choose which path to go in. And also making me rethink and consider going for something easier, because… what if?
If I could go back in time and meet my younger version, I would have only a few pieces of advice to give to her.
Confidence is the key.
When we are choosing a career for ourselves, the thing that keeps us behind is usually our confidence. We doubt ourselves, whether we have what it takes to achieve what we want. We doubt that maybe there are other people fitter at this than you are and you must change your decision to something else.
The deal with aiming high is, we get scared. When dreams are big or far from us, we are afraid of it. There are so many reasons for this fear, from being anxious about our ability to achieve it to the fear of being able to handle it when you have achieved it.
What one needs to remember is that confidence is that one key that can drive them to any and every place they need to go. No matter how hard reaching that place could be, with confidence, everything gets easier.
Believe in yourself.
Career is a series of thousands of decisions. But apart from deciding, it is also going along with the decision. A person requires to stand by what they decided and dwell themselves completely in their decision. To get anywhere in life and to achieve what they want to, dedicating their entire mind and life to the goal is what is needed.
But people often get stuck in between their goals and wish to give up. Many give up because the doubts were getting stronger than before. One needs to remember that assuming if something would work or not is never going to work. The only solution is to work through the doubt and believe in yourself to be stronger than the thoughts of self doubts your mind shoves at you.
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.
Working through the doubt.
It is human nature to doubt, to think of the worse possibilities, to look out for the negativity. Somehow, every one of us has a pessimistic side, and getting rid of it is something we haven’t yet learned.
But what we CAN do is, work through those thoughts. Reason with your thoughts; try to understand the reason why you doubt yourself. Maybe in doing that you would find out how irrelevant your doubts are or maybe you would find out where you need to grow.
For instance, if you doubt that you wouldn’t achieve your dream because of that ONE thing you lack skills in, and then you must always remember, it is completely in your hand to learn that skill. You can learn that skill, master a one you already knew, prepare yourself to win against any possible setback that might come your way in the path of your career.
When you are in doubt, instead of suppressing those thoughts, you must pay heed to them. And instead of feeling bad or anxious or worried about it, you must try to eliminate the reason for that thought and hustle till your doubt is turned into confidence.
“Thinking won’t cure fear, action will.”
―W. Clement Stone.
Make the correct decision.
‘Follow your heart, follow your brain, follow your parents, or follow your teachers, your siblings, your role models…’ the list goes on and on. And what this does is, only makes a person even more confused than before.
Career is what our entire future rides upon. And as much as it depends on working hard, it also depends on choosing the right. Making a decision has to be the toughest of all because if you chose the right career, struggling would become exciting and maybe even fun. But if you didn’t… let’s not contemplate that.
Everyone dreams about doing something they love, something that wouldn’t feel like doing work, and something that they wouldn’t want to take a vacation from. I am not suggesting that one should always pursue their hobby, no, instead, what I am saying is, one should, always, pursue something they love, something they are passionate about. They should ask for advice from people who have a career in the field they wish to pursue, they must weigh in the pros and cons, they must decide what extra and less they need to do to be successful in their decision.
And at the same time, they should be really more than they are optimistic. They must research about the field they have chosen, they must consider if the requirements match with their personality and skills, if it would become more or less demanding in the future, or if it is something they are passionate about, if they get excited by the mere thought of working in that particular field.
And when and if they find out that their skills or personality doesn’t match with the field they want to pursue their career in, one also needs to remember that they have all the power to change. They can work hard to learn and master that skill; one can bring changes in their personality.
Taking a calculated leap of faith.
A common trend that is seen when people opt for a career is that of running away from risks. People opt for traditional careers only because those seem to be the ones that come with the least amount of risk. People often run away from what they are actually passionate about, from things they have a real talent in, simply because it is not something commonly pursued and hence it must be something hard or to achieve.
DREAMS ARE HARD. When you are passionate about something, when you have a dream, the only way to achieve is to not give it up, to be completely determined to achieve it come what may. It is all about being courageous enough to take a risk, and many times you’d realise what looked like a very scary and big risk just turned out to be a shallow pool where you can’t drown at all. People need consistency, determination, and dedication to achieve what they are passionate about.
There are so many people out there who either got scared of risks that they let their talent, ideas, passion, and capability go to waste in want of stability and surety.
Just a little bit of belief and courage is needed to defeat the fear of risk that is keeping you from going through what could be possibly the most beautiful and exciting adventure of your life.
“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.
Don’t just rely on your talent.
Talent can only take you so far… But to succeed in your career and your life, what you need is to be dedicated, to be hard-working, to be determined to grow, and to be self-disciplined. People let their talent be the guiding light of their career, often letting themselves fail in other important areas, not working hard, not being dedicated, because their trust in their talent is so much that they believe it would take them to the top. But would it keep them there?
People need to remember to stay humble, to work hard even when they have ‘talent,’ they must not take their talent for granted and instead should keep on trying to get better and better with time and experience.
“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
― Kevin Durant.
Choosing a career is the scariest decision I had to take, it took me a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of doubts, lot of setbacks, I reconsidered everything, I even planned to go for something that my family thought would be easier and also good for me, my heart said one thing, my brain said another. But I searched, I learned, I listened and it was when I finally realised what I was passionate about, I had made my decision. With time, I am becoming a better fit for the career of my dreams, training myself to possess and master the skills and traits needed for the field and I know, I made the right decision. I hope you do too.
