I was recently asked by some younger folks about career choices, so I wanted to share some of my experiences.
When you get stuck on difficult life issues and face a tough choice between two options, it's often because you weren't prepared in advance. Now you're forced to make that binary decision. At this point, you have to recognize that your resources are limited. When you can't have both, you need to figure out what matters most to you. Often, this means adjusting your expectations, letting go of something, and then getting back to work.
I think most people expect their future development to follow a continuously rising curve, from the bottom left to the top right.
But real life is rarely like that. Many things are unpredictable. You can't avoid failures and accidents; you'll face many hardships and pains. It's like the stock market—there are ups and downs.
Take, for example, employees who have been with a large organization for a long time. They might have been well-compensated, but their work was very simple or siloed. They stayed for years without realizing they had set the bar for their own growth very low. When it's time to leave and find a new job, they often get stuck.
Money or Personal Development: The Choice.
After leaving, they get hung up on their previous salary. They expect the same level of pay in their next job, and that's where they get stuck.
Sometimes, the work was so specialized that their skills were only valuable to their former company. Having not expanded their skillset over the years, they struggle to find a matching role in the broader market. It's possible their high salary was essentially compensation for that narrow career path.
At this point, you have to delay gratification. You need to go back to a previous checkpoint, so to speak, and work on aligning your skills and expertise with the market's demands. From there, you can slowly work your way back toward your goals.
I really love this quote from Adultology:
Even if you make the wrong choice, it's not the end of the world. There is no real failure in life, nor is there real success. True success is keeping yourself in a stable, sustainable state for the long haul.
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