Life Vs. Career

Picking a career in your twenties sucks.

I’d just like to get that out of the way, so we can all acknowledge and agree on it.  Nowadays, the twenties are often agreed upon as the most stressful time in a person’s life.  This is because it is the time where you are supposed to set yourself on the course of your life, and steer your career, and personal life forward, while balancing the insanities of being in the most transitional period of your life. 

I’ll admit right now that I’m very fortunate, because I am one of the few people who is sure of what they want to do, career-wise.  Probably.  Anyway, operating under the assumption that I have at least some idea of what I’m doing, I’d like to share the realization that made me more confident to pursue my work.

My job is not everything I am going to do.  I work as a scenic and production designer for theatre, events, and entertainment, and I have a passionate and all consuming love of that work that means I spend more hours than a sane person should working on it.  Yet I recognize there is more than that to me.

In terms of my personal life, I love having friends in other fields because I’m a firm believer in leading a balanced life.  Build connections to as many different things in this world as you can, through people and other means.  Be as connected as you can, and you will find clarity that comes with a wider perspective.  If you only work, talk about that work, and see those you work with, I would wager good money that you are not as happy as you could be.

More importantly, however, I want to discuss how to reconcile your ability to love and care about your work, and not be consumed or changed by it.

I think I can safely assume that everyone reading this either has, or is, a person who seems to change careers so often and drastically that it seems that switching careers is in fact…their career.  That is totally okay.  That’s more than okay-that’s admirable and normal. 

There is a difference, in my opinion, between those who try everything to find what they care about, and those who keep changing what they care about and keep changing themselves to keep up.  A person does not need to lose their identity to fit into a career, but should instead find a career that fits your identity.

I am a designer for events and entertainment.  That is the job that fits who I am, and makes me happy.  However, I also care deeply about the state of the world abroad.  This does not mean that I am going to become a relief worker, because I know that I do not have the strength to make facing that much heartbreak the central part of my life.  It does, however, mean that I am going to use my income to establish new efforts to help out how I can in the future.  This is one small example of what I mean.

My favorite word, since I began writing this blog, and really examining my life and career thus far is “unlimited.”  Be unlimited in what you do.  Break the boundaries of every element of your life.  Be bigger than expectations.  Be yourself, and exist outside definition.

Live your life, without limits.