Re:Climbing the wrong hill (2009)
by ChuckMcM on Monday April 17, 2017 @01:24AM
(#14129348)
There is some truth in what you say, but there is also a trap.
In my experience I've found that by thinking about what they want, a person can get a better understanding of what their choices are offering. The challenge is differentiating between 'heading to' (aspirational wants) versus 'running from' (symptomatic wants). The question the example person in Chris' article did not answer was "Do you want to do X?" (aspirational) or "Do you not want to do Y?" (symptomatic). People can spend all of their careers running away from things they don't like, that seems to leave them feeling bitter.
The nuance that I think Chris overlooks is that you can see the next hill but the valley is still full of fog, and that fog can obscure the fact that some hills have a cliff on one side of them. For example you can't just go over to the local hospital and say "Hey, I'd like to be brain surgeon! Got any openings?"
One way I've found to separate things I'm simply running away from versus things I'm trying to run toward, is that when I think I want to go to X, I start researching X and what paths lead there. Sort of like looking at people who are in the space I think I want to go and looking at the path they took there. Then trying to figure out what steps were necessary and which ones were not. To be a doctor these days you need a medical degree, its necessary, but you don't need like biology, that is helpful but not essential. If I am unwilling to take the essential steps, I have to consider that perhaps I don't really "want" what I think I want.
As a result one of the things I try to do in every place I work is 'round' myself out in some way or another. The goal is to make as many "hills" accessible as I reasonably can.
In my experience I've found that by thinking about what they want, a person can get a better understanding of what their choices are offering. The challenge is differentiating between 'heading to' (aspirational wants) versus 'running from' (symptomatic wants). The question the example person in Chris' article did not answer was "Do you want to do X?" (aspirational) or "Do you not want to do Y?" (symptomatic). People can spend all of their careers running away from things they don't like, that seems to leave them feeling bitter.
The nuance that I think Chris overlooks is that you can see the next hill but the valley is still full of fog, and that fog can obscure the fact that some hills have a cliff on one side of them. For example you can't just go over to the local hospital and say "Hey, I'd like to be brain surgeon! Got any openings?"
One way I've found to separate things I'm simply running away from versus things I'm trying to run toward, is that when I think I want to go to X, I start researching X and what paths lead there. Sort of like looking at people who are in the space I think I want to go and looking at the path they took there. Then trying to figure out what steps were necessary and which ones were not. To be a doctor these days you need a medical degree, its necessary, but you don't need like biology, that is helpful but not essential. If I am unwilling to take the essential steps, I have to consider that perhaps I don't really "want" what I think I want.
As a result one of the things I try to do in every place I work is 'round' myself out in some way or another. The goal is to make as many "hills" accessible as I reasonably can.