Ultimate Career
Career Worth Living For!
Why Did They Teach That In School?
Jan 28th
Did you ever have this thought in mind while going through school:
WHY ARE THEY TEACHING THIS?
Well, perhaps at that moment, you didn’t think of this question since school is *supposed to be* a place where you do what you are told. Well, at least in primary school. Then, in high school, you were taught more complex and advanced stuff that it made your head spin. From this point on, you would have started to realize that much of the stuff taught in school will never ever be used in your entire life.
For me, those “stuff” will be calculus (yes, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, and the like), technical work (as in, metal work, wood work, handling tools, etc.), and chemistry.
Schools want to be sure that they covered all grounds (but according to who?). This type of education is “just-in-case” education.
What a grand waste of youth!
Now, on hindsight, I’d have preferred lessons on:
- Relationships (how to find my life partner, how to deal with people)
- Finance (i.e. how to earn, manage, and grow my money)
- Making good decisions and choices (i.e. how to think)
- Health and Fitness (living with energy and free from illnesses)
- Career and jobs (finding them and doing well in them)
- Emotions (how to manage them)
- How to care for and bring up children (yes, most people do want to be parents eventually)
- Sex (what to do and how to do them)
Aren’t these what we need on a daily basis as human beings?
Aren’t these more important than mathematics, history and chemistry?
Yet, why is it that school don’t teach such things at all?? And they simply leave us to figure them out ourselves by trial and error. They assume that because you have completed secondary education or tertiary education, you’d have no problems with these areas in life. Why is it that such vital life issues are treated as trivial matters by our society?
Are You Sure?
Aug 12th
I just got back to hot, hot Singapore for several days now and am
now writing this week’s Jobscope entry in the middle of the night.
I’m doing this because I have just ended a rather long day (days
seem so much longer when you are in the heat most of the time
sweating a way…) but wanted to capture and share with you two
conversations I had today.
I was catching up with two friends separately today and
interestingly, our conversations followed a very similar thread. To
give you a little background, both these two friends are
high-flying executives in large organizations and both have the
word “Director” in their job title. One of them is in her early 30s
and the other in her early 40s.
Over breakfast, the friend in her early 30s spoke about needing to
take time off to enjoy her life and do the things she loves,
emphasizing the importance of a balanced life and not to take her
work too seriously and risk her health doing so. She talked how she
is managing to reschedule her life so that she doesn’t work so hard
and long any longer but instead, she is spending time to pursue
hobbies and interests. She has also found herself healthier since
making the changes.
Over dinner, my other friend in her early 40s spoke of how life is
different now since changing her job a month ago. She is no longer
stressed-out and, in fact, finds life and work at a good pace now.
Her high-blood pressure has miraculously “disappeared” and she no
longer needs to take any medication. She now has time for her love
life and reckoned that even though she took a big pay-cut with the
job switch, it was well worth it.
Did you get the thread of the two conversations?
They were about the need to slow down and balance life; and that
life is meant to be lived and enjoyed and not to be “worked away.”
I must say that such conversations are rather common amongst
mid-career professionals. It is a phase that city executives go
through and some may even call in “mid-life crisis.”
For those of you who are still studying or are young professionals,
this is something that you might have heard or read about. But I
would think that it is something that is rather hard to really
understand at this point in your life.
Most of us are taught to study hard, earn a good degree, find a
good job, work hard, earn lots of money and that is when you are
successful and fulfilled. The problem is that when we finally get
to the level when we are working very hard and earning lots of
money, we actually do not have the time (and life, for some) to
enjoy our lives.
At the time, we begin to associate with our work and achievements.
Our work becomes us and we become our work. The pressure to
continue to hang on to the work, work harder and earn more gets
even greater at that time that stopping, or slowing down, is not an
option. We start to think that without the work, we are nobody and
so, we are afraid of losing that identity.
Is it necessary to go through all that trouble and years just to
realize that there is a big difference between success and
fulfillment? That life can be enjoyed NOW? That life needs to be
balanced? That it is possible to achieve without striving?
Let me say this straight: There are only two things we know for
sure in life - Death and Taxes. The rest of life is up to you to
choose.
In the long run, we are all going to be dead.
Question is “What are you going to do with your life between now
and then?”
What’s your life about?
Feb 19th
Every once in a while in my life, I stumble upon some really really meaningful things (news, books, events, speech, etc.) which makes me sit back and think about how fortunate and blessed I am. A friend of mine sent me a video clip on Google video last week and I don’t usually spare the time for such links (because most of them are… rather trashy). And I was somehow curious enough that day, perhaps tired from the day’s work and all so eager to take my mind off things, to check out the clip.
And I was thankful that I did. It gave me new zest for life!
The video is a simple lecture by Dr Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University about achieving childhood dreams. It is deeply deeply moving and even at this terminal stage of his life, you will not see an ounce of negativity. The 1.5 hours you use to watch this lecture seminar will be such a great investment for your life!
Click here to see it! Or simply go to video.google.com and search for “Randy Pausch.”
With tears rolling down my cheek as I watched, I was reminded that life is really about living every moment. About daring to dream big dreams and then go on ahead to achieve them. It is about sharing with people you love. Reflecting back, while I am someone who is always thinking big and taking actions to make it happen, there were many moments in my life that I was held back by fear (most of them imagined) and what others may think.
In the long term, we are all dead. Between now and then, what are you doing with your life?
Find Your Purpose
Dec 4th
A quote of what I read recently by Dr. Wayne Dyer: “There is no way to happiness. Happiness IS the way.”
Dr Dyer was stressing the fact that if we strive for happiness, it will elude us. Yet, if we choose to be happy here and now, we will have it.”
I thought of the amount of time and effort and angst that I went through trying to find my purpose in life some years back. Back then, I held the idea that I have A purpose in this life and unless I find it, I’m not living a fulfilling life.
I have grown to realise that this idea is not an accurate view of what life is about.
The greatest gift that we have as human-beings is that we have free-will. And with free-will, we can choose what we want to do and how we want to react every moment of our lives. We can also choose a purpose that is our bliss. In this sense, we can find a purpose for ourselves NOW instead of THE purpose way out in the future. And that purpose is something that we enjoy doing most parts of our lives right up till the current moment. Such a purpose often involves contributing to the community or simply helping others.
My own learning is this: Go after your bliss (i.e. what you absolutely enjoy doing and find satisfaction from) and your purpose will find you.