Are our efforts ever wasted?

Recently did a couple of Blogs about job attraction. One was “what Draws you to a Job” and the other, "Architects & Hey Dad". In those blogs I took, first the negative and then the positive aspects of choosing your future profession based on what one sees depicted of it on TV. There, my emphasis and in both posts, was that even when positive, one should always check a career move out with much more care than simply taking what one sees on TV as real reality. Still wise advice I believe, however Anyway I received some comments from my oldest, but not older, sister in regard to my comments on, "Architects & Hey Dad", that has prompted me to look again at this issue and address two issues that she raised from it.

I already addressed the first one in my previous blog, under “How Well Can One Know A future Profession In Advance?” So here I will now attempt to address her second main comment here. Which was/is:

“Also I have come to believe that no time spent studying or working in a field that "is not for you” is ever really wasted. Something new is always learnt even it is only learning to be involved with others in your field, and that it is not want you want to do or be. It can make things clearer in what you might really want to do. Its really on how you look at it! Half full or half empty.”

Again a very true point, and one I couldn’t agree more with from the view that we can and in fact should, learn something from every new experience, even the Bad. However I still think it better, if not best to learn from other’s bad mistakes, rather than to make them yourself.

So if you have made a wrong choice somewhere along the line in the past, certainly learn from it, but also learn to be more careful and selective in future, so that you can learn, without the personal cost of time and effort and even pain, and choose something that will hopefully teach your more and nicer lessons at a much reduced coast of time and effort.

Our lives are short enough as they are, not to waste time from making obvious wrong choices. Goodness knows we make enough as it is without the need to find more through what is often just a little lack of extra research and activity first on our part, isn’t it?
So to answer my opening title, "Are our efforts ever wasted?" The short answer is no, but!

No, no effort can truly be judged as wasted, but they can be, and often are, judged as not a valuable use of resources and time, when other/better/ more practical options could/should have been used.

So again I urge you whether it be with a prospective new job, or house purchase, or any other significant life change, do some research first, learn from the mistakes of others, and if you do have to make mistakes, try and make new ones so that others can benefit from your bad experiences without unnecessarily making them their own. Well that’s my view! What’s yours?

How Well Can One Know A future Profession In Advance?

Recently did a couple of Blogs about job attraction. One was “what Draws you to a Job” and the other, "Architects & Hey Dad".

In these two blogs I took separately, first the negative and then the positive aspect of choosing your future profession based solely from what you see depicted of it on TV.

However my emphasis in both posts was that even when positive, one should always check a career move out with much more care than simply taking what you see on TV as ‘real reality’. Still wise advice I believe. Anyway, I received the following comment from my oldest, but not older, sister in regard to my comments on, "Architects & Hey Dad".

“You do have a point but I beg to differ about how well you may check some occupations out, it really comes down to what it is like in the real world. What you see some times is not what it is really all about. Some times it can come down to who you work with and where. Saying that one occupation is always a particular way is unrealistic a lot depends on depends on how you think as in the way you do things. Some personalities are more suitable for a particular job but you may not be that type of person and be brilliant in that profession. Interestingly some positions do the theory long before the practical and you can be great in one part and not the other, so how do you choose?? Also I have come to believe that no time spent studying or working in a field that "is not for you' is ever really wasted. Something new is always learnt even it is only learning to be involved with others in your field, and that it is not want you want to do or be. It can make things clearer in what you might really want to do. Its really on how you look at it! Half full or half empty.”
She makes some very good points here and two major ones in particular and so I will respond to the first now and address the second in another blog.

The first question to be addressed in this discussion in my humble opinion is not what is the best Profession to be in or even what profession are you best suited for, but in fact the real question is what is the best Profession for you?

As my sister rightly says, “What you see some times is not what it is really all about. Some times it can come down to who you work with and where. Saying that one occupation is always a particular way is unrealistic a lot depends on depends on how you think as in the way you do things. Some personalities are more suitable for a particular job but you may not be that type of person and be brilliant in that profession.”

Some times it is indeed the people you work with that can make your job “heaven or hell” so to speak, but that said, it is also common knowledge that certain jobs attract certain types of people and if you know that your personality cannot cope with that type of person then you should seriously not consider that career. Again if you are set in your ways on how things are to be done, then jobs that require a lot of regimentation are not for you.

Yes I know that there will always be some “Blankety Blank” people wherever you go, but that is sadly a fact of life that we all have to live with and if you struggle with that then you have to look for career opportunities where that type of personality, is not dominant.

Also, although some jobs encourage one type of personality, that doesn’t mean everyone is like that and it is possible for you to sometimes choose an employer where not everyone is like that. Which is why I harp back on my original point of doing your research a bit more carefully at the start, if you have that option.

I close with the reminder that while my blogs are meant to be simple and usually only address one side of a discussion, I do acknowledge that nothing in life is ever really simple, and that there are many variables and alternatives. However in my blogs, I try to present simple views, with the hope/wish that they will encourage you the reader to a further and a more fuller study on the subject. As such I also appreciate your input and views too and like with my sister’s comments, these often inspire other blogs, so thanks for your input. Whether it be past or future. Walter.

What Draws You to A Job?

Recently, (for a while actually,) there has been a lot of exposure, (too much even,) to Chefs and cooking shows on TV and the rest of the Media. This apparently has also transpired into a rash of applicants to become chefs too. Thus Hotels, Restaurants etc, are seeing a mass increase in the number of young people now wanting to make a career in the Hospitality industry as Chefs. And so there is an abundance of budding Chefs in the pipeline isn’t there?

Well that is how it appears on the surface, but in reality it is slightly different and an interesting trend has arisen. Many people, and young people at that, have seen these shows and the culture depicted on TV and seen where it leads to and see these portrayals as “real life” and an easy shortcut to fame and fortune. Thus they eagerly and in surprising numbers, seek their fame, fortune and futures in the trade schools and businesses of the Hospitality Industry as up and coming Chefs of the future.

Unfortunately, when they actually start out on this ‘New life style’ for them, they find that all is not all that it is depicted in these shows and is in fact a lot of hard work and long hours on low pay; and even then for those lucky few who do make it to the top, it often takes 20 to 25 years of a long hard slog as an apprentice, trainee etc, even long after the official Apprenticeship has officially ended. Thus the hospitality Industry, while currently attracting a huge influx of potential future Chefs, is also seeing an extremely high dropout rate, as many realise it is not as easy as it seems on TV, and the new applicants, just drop out very quickly, leaving very few to continue on in the industry, let alone actually become world famous chefs.

How about you in your own life situation and future career prospects? Are you in a situation now where you think some thing looks attractive and glamorous and a short cut to fame and fortune and you are tempted to take it on?

Well please take my humble suggestion and check it out thoroughly first. Yes before you totally commit yourself to it, check it out first. Get a Summer Job in it, do a course in it, get a part time/ casual job in it and just see if it really is for you, before you find yourself either locked into something you hate, or doing something that will cost you greatly to get out of.

On the other hand if you like cooking and think being a chef might be really up your ally, do check it out too. But do check it out fully before you commit yourself fully. And do have a great career in whatever you choose.

You are not a failure.

How is your life going today? Are you feeling trapped in a lousy Job? Do you really feel like your life is a failure? Or is it just others trying to tell you that? If it is others trying to tell you that then, don’t listen to them.

Even if you have according to them, a crappy Job, at least you have a job and a life, which is more than many others do, and they see these things lacking in themselves as failures but justify themselves by knowing they are not alone. Thus they don’t like it when some of their contemporaries start to get ahead and start to make something of their lives, even if that start is with a lousy job, and rather than congratulate and help them succeed, these real failures try and pull the triers back down to their own level.

So if you are in that situation now, then realise it is they and not you, who are the real failures and you should not listen to them. Sure help them rise above their present situations if possible, but never allow yourself to go back down to theirs. Never ever!

I am going to close with the advice that whenever that "Tinny" (& I do mean tinny and not Tiny,) voice inside you, planted by them, starts to say you are a failure, Answer it back quite strongly, saying “No! You are the failure, I am the successful one around here, so clear off.”

I can't even pretend to promise it will work every time, but it will work if you believe it yourself. And if you want proof that you are a success, look back and think of those things that you have succeeded at, including your consistently holding down a crappy job. Anyone can hold down a great or even a good one, but to hold down a crappy one does take a lot of doing doesn't it? If that is not a part of being successful I don't know what is. So hang on in there. You are already well on the way to success. Don’t let the real failures pull you back to their level, just for their self-justification. Over to you now for application.

Jobs that pay the Bills

Age News paper had an article about bad jobs that paid the Bills. The article was called “When a dog of a job keeps the wolf from the door”. It then went on to list a few totally mind numbing jobs that various people all over the world do, just to pay the rent.

I won’t mention any here but the main pointy of all of them was that they were seen by the worker as pointless and mind numbing and totally unfulfilling, with the only positive being that ”But at least it pays the mortgage”

Is that how you feel about your job? Pointless, Mind-numbing and boring? Yet despite that, because it pays the bills you are reluctant to change jobs?

I can’t say that all of my job is pointless as a couple of hundred people would miss me each day if I didn’t turn up to sell them their paper and drinks etc. But there are other parts of the job that are boring if not quite mind numbing.

However it is no longer satisfying and currently all I am doing is “ Paying the Rent” while marking time.

Well that is the way I feel at the moment so today I gave my Boss one month’s notice, after which I intend to take a month’s holiday and get back into Christian Ministry. Well you now know how I feel about my job, how do you feel about yours?

Good Jobs That Pay the Bills

Despite the fact that a lot of people end up doing jobs they hate just to pay the bills, there are some good jobs out there. The thing is to find them. One way is to find what it is that you are good at and then work at it.

Australia’s most famous cook and now one of Australia’s Living National Treasures, Margaret Fulton who published her first cook book in 1968, and now at 82 recently said, “And now I have had 26 books. The marvelous thing is, I’ve had such a good life doing it. It’s lovely to find you’re good at doing something and to be paid for doing it - it’s a dream”.

She has obviously found something that she was good at, and turned it into something more than a job or a way simply to pay the bills. We may never be like her, nor perhaps as successful as her, but we should all try to find what we are good at and see if we can turn that into a way of life as well as a bill paying occupation.

For the past few years I have been happy to just have a bill-paying job, but now I am in the process of leaving that and going back to something that I am happy to do out of love for the job and not for the money.

Yes it will pay my bills, and yes it will bring me more pressure and stresses, but it is something that I want to do, rather than have to do.

How are you going? Is your job just a bill payer, or is it something you are good at and love? What is your dream job? And what are you doing to achieve it? Over to you: Walter