Yuppie Wisdom

So Mom D recently bought Jack a book for his birthday called The One Week Job Project. I thought it was going to be a flippant read, as a Generation-Y idealist job-hopped across continents and flashed his yuppie smile at willing employers (yeah, I'm not one for stereotyping). I was surprised when I learned a few things from the youngster who tried out 52 jobs in one year, traveling around North America to find his passion.

Did I just say "youngster?" Wow, I must be 91 years old!

Two significant ideas jumped out at me from this book: passion and fear. With fear, you cannot seek your passion. When you decided to seek your passion, you must overcome the recurring fear you experience.

For instance, one week, the writer tried out entrepreneurship. He asked the entrepreneur about his best advice on overcoming fear (entrepreneurs have reason to be fearful!). His response was to ask, "What would you do if you weren't afraid? As soon as you put that fear aside, compartmentalize it, then you can move forward."

At that point, I had to dog-ear that page, set the book down, and ponder this. Hmmm. What would I do if I weren't afraid? Luckily, I haven't let fear tie me down too tightly, but there's still room to explore this. For instance, my first reaction told me I should sell all my belongings, move to the outer barrier islands of the Bahamas, and set up a B&B. I keep joking about this as an escape route to my hospital-administrator-life, but I'm starting to wonder if there's a seed of truth there.

More realistically, I realized how much power we give fear. Why do we allow fear to run our lives? Why do we cater to fear as though it's the prudent thing to do?

Picking the book back up, the writer turned his attention to the meaning of success. This quote was great: "If you're able to find something that allows you to express your interest, your creativity, and that you're passionate about--to me, that's success. Not how big your bank account is, not how proud your mom and dad are, but that you're doing it for yourself and that you're getting something out of it through which you're continuing to grow."

"Success" is easily defined by society as money, prestige, the white-picket fence. I think this guy has it right...finding something you're passionate about and DOING IT, well, that's success. Who cares how fat your bank account is if you're miserable and dreading the workweek on Sunday evenings?

Finally, the last tidbit I captured from this book describes the melding of the two notions of passion and success...."A career is merely one vehicle to fulfill our passion."

If I choose the right career that fulfills my passion, I will inevitably become successful at it. I will be expressing my interests, defining my creativity, and engaging in my passion...how can you NOT be successful at a job that meets all those fundamentally-human desires?

So after all of this motivational talk, the key seems to be knowing oneself. You cannot start out on this journey of passion and success without knowing what makes you tick. What fires you up? What makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning?

You go figure it out for yourself and I'll go do the same (from under my covers in bed!).