Get Career Fit, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 1 Check

Are you future fit?

‘Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.’

Lao Tzu

For some of us, work is a necessary evil, to be endured in return for money so we can pay bills, go on great holidays and fund a lifestyle — it’s a means to an end and nothing more. For the fortunate few, it’s something we love doing. Work gives us purpose, satisfaction, enjoyment and fulfilment.

Love it or loathe it, work is a critical part of your life.

Across your lifetime, you are likely to spend up to 100 000 hours at work or in some form of employment. That’s based on you starting full-time work at 18, retiring at 65 and working only eight hours a day for the standard 261 working days of the year. If you are a workaholic or are used to putting in a few hours of overtime each week, it’s likely to be substantially higher.

So wouldn’t you rather be doing something you actually like to do?

I don’t mean you’ll like every minute of every day (that’s totally unrealistic), but on balance you find it stimulating, interesting and valuable. Something you feel good about getting up for instead of hiding under the doona.

Many of us feel trapped in a job we don’t like. We’re bored, in a rut, stressed out or overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work we need to do. And yet we remain in that rut, telling ourselves, ‘Yeah this place sucks, but better the devil you know. At least I know how this place works.’ Or, ‘I don’t know what else to do. It’s ...