Find work that fits your temperament
One thing that isn’t talked about enough is the importance of finding work that fits your temperament.
What I mean by that is everyone talks about finding work that you’re good at, that confers status or makes good money.
Those are legitimate perspectives to take, but what about the other side of that coin?
What about finding work that is good to you, for you?
It’s a two-way street.
I’ve learned this from personal experience.
I’ve worked in the corporate world, I’ve worked as a teacher and I’ve worked for myself.
Each job put me in drastically different environments and some were better suited to my personality and needs than others.
As someone who is highly curious, analytical and on the introverted side, each work environment fed me in different ways:
The corporate world fed my analytical mind and the regular salary gave me stability but the office politics drained me.
Teaching fed my need to do meaningful work but managing large groups of students and class dynamics left me too little time to breath.
Working for myself (in the form of a business or freelancing), which I have done repeatedly, puts pressure on the financial side (will I make enough to pay the bills?) but feeds my need for independence.
So, even though my professional life looks disjointed from the outside, it’s actually been a process of me trying to figure out what suits me. What works for me.
And one thing I’ve learned is to not discount the need to find work that is in sync with who you are. Your nature, your personality, your being.
Yes, money is important. Yes, so too is meaning.
But it’s so much more grounding to wake up each morning and flow through the day from a place of strength.
It’s the difference between forcing yourself into someone else’s version of success and, instead, honoring you’re own.
You have tremendous value within you already.
But are the environments you find yourself in feeding who you are?
Till next time,
Ben
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