Occasionally I like to dispense sage career advice, like this guy. Here’s a fun thought experiment: Make a list of what you spend your time doing, on an average day. Now imagine you’re interviewing for the job you want next. When the interviewer asks about what you do, you are only allowed to tell him about the things you wrote on the list. Are you getting the job?
There’s always tension between the now-and-not-yet in our careers…the disparity between where we are and where we’re going. The more clear-eyed we are about the career we want, the more stark that disparity can seem. It’s important to learn to “wait well” in those seasons. Sometimes those seasons open the most amazing doors, in ways we could not have foreseen.
But it’s also important to prepare for the season to come, before it’s arrived, so that you’re ready when it does. Most of us spend our lives so down in the weeds of the day-to-day that we actually undermine our own development into who we want to become. Don’t do that.
Remember the medieval quarry worker’s creed: “We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.” You’re both the quarry worker, and the stones. The question is, what are you building?
