I do know.
Tucked in the middle of an errant e-mail that arrived in my inbox today was this little nugget of wisdom:
Think you know someone
who lacks motivation? Nonsense. What you
know is someone who doesn't believe that
their efforts will accomplish anything worth
having. In other words, they
1) have no clear, empowering goal or
2) Have no belief that they can reach their goal.
Recently. And then I write "recently" I mean within the last 72 hours, my future has been called into question. And when I write "called into question," I really mean that a fair number of people have questioned what I'm doing, why I'm doing and the motivation behind doing it.
When most people ask me what I'm doing, why I'm traveling and when I'm going to return back to wherever they think my home is, I invariably reply, "I don't know." Which is inaccurate to say the least, but it's the one that causes me the least troubles. In some ways, this answer acts as "a self-authorizing code," in that if you're smart enough to figure it out, you have the right to understand the message.
And when I say "I don't know," it means that I'm traveling to figure out what to do with my life. I have been lucky in having the parents that I've had. They brought me out of Vietnam and ensured that I kept my family's traditions in a new land of opportunity. I've been lucky in graduating from a great university and lived with some of the smartest people I've never met. I've been doubly lucky in that after graduation, I was able to travel the world with the rest of the smart people in my life. I'm sound financially. I don't have to choose any job that makes me unhappy.
And being so lucky, I feel that it's my responsibility to choose my future very carefully. Over brunch this morning, I remarked that in the States, there's a constant pressure to work, to achieve. More often than not, it's the amount of achievement that's important, and not the nature of the achievement.
I'm making a hash of this. I should go back and edit this, but I want to get this out now.
In America, progress and achievement are stressed. And in a world where "progress" is measured by your job title, and "achievement" is measured by the size of your bank account, most people never are able to take the time to think about what they really want to do. The lucky ones are those that fall into careers that suit their natures. Not the ones that wake up every day thinking, "Boy, am I happy to be alive, and have this job," but rather those who make do by saying, "This doesn't make me miserable. And a new episode of 'Friends' is on tonight."
Me, I'm trying to get into that "I love my job" camp.
Think you know someone
who lacks motivation? Nonsense. What you
know is someone who doesn't believe that
their efforts will accomplish anything worth
having. In other words, they
1) have no clear, empowering goal or
2) Have no belief that they can reach their goal.
Recently. And then I write "recently" I mean within the last 72 hours, my future has been called into question. And when I write "called into question," I really mean that a fair number of people have questioned what I'm doing, why I'm doing and the motivation behind doing it.
When most people ask me what I'm doing, why I'm traveling and when I'm going to return back to wherever they think my home is, I invariably reply, "I don't know." Which is inaccurate to say the least, but it's the one that causes me the least troubles. In some ways, this answer acts as "a self-authorizing code," in that if you're smart enough to figure it out, you have the right to understand the message.
And when I say "I don't know," it means that I'm traveling to figure out what to do with my life. I have been lucky in having the parents that I've had. They brought me out of Vietnam and ensured that I kept my family's traditions in a new land of opportunity. I've been lucky in graduating from a great university and lived with some of the smartest people I've never met. I've been doubly lucky in that after graduation, I was able to travel the world with the rest of the smart people in my life. I'm sound financially. I don't have to choose any job that makes me unhappy.
And being so lucky, I feel that it's my responsibility to choose my future very carefully. Over brunch this morning, I remarked that in the States, there's a constant pressure to work, to achieve. More often than not, it's the amount of achievement that's important, and not the nature of the achievement.
I'm making a hash of this. I should go back and edit this, but I want to get this out now.
In America, progress and achievement are stressed. And in a world where "progress" is measured by your job title, and "achievement" is measured by the size of your bank account, most people never are able to take the time to think about what they really want to do. The lucky ones are those that fall into careers that suit their natures. Not the ones that wake up every day thinking, "Boy, am I happy to be alive, and have this job," but rather those who make do by saying, "This doesn't make me miserable. And a new episode of 'Friends' is on tonight."
Me, I'm trying to get into that "I love my job" camp.