To do so, he could have sought employment with public agencies or companies that served the needs of the disabled. Or, he could have pursued opportunities where his disability would be a strength as much as a liability, perhaps in recruiting or training others with disabilities. In a surprising and courageous move, though, he decided not to place his disability at the center of his work-life. It was a short but important step from there to teaching, where he discovered that he could use his excellent communication skills to teach computer programming to college students.
The programmer exemplifies Booker T. Washington's remark: "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that one has overcome while trying to succeed." The programmer is doing what he wants: achieving in spite of his disability. This accomplishment is likely to bring him deep satisfaction.
Archimedes believed that you need only two things to move the world: a lever and a place to stand. Your lever is yourself: the sum total of your personality, talents, interests and values. Vocationally speaking, your place to stand is wherever you decide to plant your feet in the world of work: whether it be in the courtroom, laboratory or classroom, on stage or in front of the computer. It is the place where you feel comfortable to practice your craft, exercise your skill or demonstrate your leadership abilities.
It can be in an organization or outside of one, in conversation with friends and colleagues, or at home with the people you love. Sharing your work with others is part of the mystery and the joy.
Sometimes, as an adult, it's hard to find a mission. Other times, the difficulty is in recognizing it when you've found it. To discover your mission, you must ask yourself what you place at the center of your life-what you personally find most meaningful and fulfilling-and then build your livelihood around that central interest or value.
Begin by looking at the position you're currently in. Are you happy where you are? Being discontented doesn't necessarily mean you should change careers entirely. Perhaps you've simply strayed too far from your initial intentions and need to re-chart your course. Or economic and societal changes may have blocked the path to your original goal. Or as you've grown, perhaps your goals and needs have changed.
To determine where you stand, ask yourself: Why did I choose this career in the first place? What do I like about it?
What do I dislike about it? Is there any way to build more of the things I like into the career (or job) that I already have?
Not everyone needs a whole new horse to ride. You may simply need a different (and perhaps more challenging) path to ride it on.
For example, a 40-year-old pharmacologist in Chicago had devoted 20 years to academic research on psychogenic drugs. On the surface, it looked like he enjoyed a satisfying and challenging career. As the principal investigator for several grants, he enjoyed senior status and had accumulated an impressive list of research publications. Yet he actually viewed his projects as "assembly-line research."
"After a while, I was just plugging new drugs into the same experimental design," he explains. "There was nothing new or challenging about it. It was boring.'
Boredom is a symptom that means something. Regardless of your place in the hierarchy, it means you're either under- or wrongly employed. You have more skills and interests than your job can utilize.
Eventually, the pharmacologist grew so frustrated with his situation that he quit. He gave himself a year of play to reconnect with the things he loved to do, since he'd given up many "fun interests" early in life to concentrate on earning a PhD and building an academic career. In that year of leisure, he discovered that science was still his core interest, However, he decided he needed to apply his skills in a broader (and, for him) more meaningful context, perhaps in consumer research or education.
Professional plateaus present an ideal opportunity to reexamine your needs and values and, if necessary, redirect your career into arenas that will stimulate new growth. Looking backward to see how and where you may have made a wrong turn will allow you to learn from and prevent mistakes before you move forward.
