Sometimes it’s necessary to hit rock bottom in your career. Hopefully you can avoid it in your life, and you don’t get the two confused. Because life matters. Your career…? Meh.
If it’s your life’s work, and truly meaningful for a greater audience, then I suppose it’s acceptable if you feel your career rock bottom felt like the world was ending.
It’s not. If you can help it.
Your life should dominate your career. Your career should not dominate your life. I just discovered a book by Seth Godin called The Dip, about knowing when to quit. Sometimes hitting rock bottom comes from not quitting soon enough (which I know all too well).
So why do we feel that it’s larger than life when our careers fail? Are we so invested, working hard to the point of blood, sweat and tears, and we can’t see the forest from the trees? Well, as Oscar Wilde said, “I don’t want to earn my living, I want to live”. And yet our society doesn’t allow that, unless you are one of the lucky ones.
In his blog, Seth Godin talks about when we fail. He takes “if” out of the equation and states that failure is inevitable. From my experience, this resonates (I’ve failed more than once), and we CAN learn from our career dips if we try.
So here’s what I believe. When you are at rock bottom, use intellectual and creative curiosity to get out of it. Read. Find mentors. Ask for help. You won’t do as well if you try alone. Make these learning moments matter, and imagine your ideal feelings before you let the bad ones go.
It’s okay to feel your feelings, but be sure to release them into the wind.
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