JUNE – JULY 2018 Opinion column, by Megan Thomas
As a teenager, we are asked to make the actual decision on “what do we want to be when we grow up”. For some it is easy, they always knew. While others feel enormous pressure because, in all honesty, they have no idea.
Some get it right from day dot and others float in and out of professions, either happily or unhappily. So how do we choose what’s right for us – or how do we know we got it right? I think there is a certain checklist and if you can answer “yes” to the majority of the points, then one could safely assume “you are what you wanted to be when you grew up”.
Here’s my checklist:
- Can you happily tell people what you do?
- Do you get excited by a new challenge at work?
- Do you smile when your client, consumer, boss, patient, or customer says “thank you” for the job you did?
- Do you think of starting another profession?
- While going to work, leaving the kids/boat/golf clubs/bed/book or surfboard may not be your most favourite thing, but once you’re at work you are absorbed by it and the people around you and don’t wish the day away.
- You speak with the people you work with and know something ‘personal’ about your colleagues.
- You don’t stop learning.
- Something, somewhere got sacrificed to be where you are today.
- You feel like you make a difference to something, some being or someone in the role you do.
And, most importantly…
You take pride in your work. I guarantee that if you don’t, it’s not the correct profession for you. In the words of Steve Jobs: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do”.
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