What were the motivations that brought us to become who and where we are now? Why did we study a certain subject or decided not to go to school, how do we choose a job, and also how do we decide who we want to share our life with? We are surrounded by external elements or influences and we have so many options, what are we basing our decisions on?
Do you consider yourself influenced by others (parents, partners, employers, mentors, teachers…publicity…) when it comes to important decisions? Most people will say yes to this question. If it’s the case, how does it affect your present life? Are you happy with your decisions, satisfied with your situation? This question comes from the fact that if we choose to go a certain way because someone influenced us to or told us to do so (ie. go into engineering because a teacher or parent told you so, vs you really wanting to do it because that’s your way of getting where you want to be, or; get a job you’re not passionate about, but there is a great salary, or ; choose a partner because all your friends have one and it’s pressuring you to settle down, or; …), we might or might not come to a dead end and reconsider our path. And when our decisions are internally driven, what makes us change our path sometimes?
When you think about your job or occupation where do you position yourself most of the time:
1- Apathic, 2-Bored, 3-Anxious, or 4-Flowing.
I guess our objective is to be in the flow zone, when you are pushed just enough to learn and be motivated, but not too much that you feel like it’s way over your capacity. How would you define that zone? When and how often does it happen? Can you, simultaneously, be dancing on the stage and be looking at yourself dancing from the balcony?
What makes us bored, what can we do when it happends: for exemple when things are not going fast enough for you, try to understand why that is instead of assuming that someone in the system is either evil (not doing the job) or stupid (does not know how).
On the other end, what makes us anxious, what can we do then? Are we too afraid to show that we don’t know everything, that we don’t know enought to do the job perfectly? Are we just too afraid to fail? When we feel that our capacities are limited to overcome the challenge, there are many options to feel better: one is to divide the problem into smaller pieces and deal with them separately; another option is to try something, see how it goes. If it does not go perfectly on the first try or even on the tenth try, step back and realize that even when we fail, the world didn’t stop revolving on its axes! And then try something else…life goes on.
If your interested here are my reflections of the last few weeks:
I realized that I’m internally driven and I strategically position my powns in the direction toward where I want to go. I’m not quite sure I have clear vision of where my end goal is, so I sometimes change my way, but I definitely have a good idea, so I rarely make my decision based on someone else’s judgement. My passions, my feelings and my reflections are triggering my actions; when I have something in mind, I’m hard to stop. I also realised I’m a dreamer and I’m really idealistic, so I might not always make good decisions and might not always be happy, but I only have myself to blame when it comes to that. Is this good or bad, I don’t know, but it’s who I am.
Here is what led me to the path I’m on right now:
I did my college in English cause I wanted to be able to go work somewhere else on the globe. My parents and friends thought I was crazy. I went into geological engineering cause I wanted to become an oceanographer. I worked in that field (oceanography) for a bit and realized that it would not be a good fit if I wanted to have a familly someday (so I changed my path based on my values). I’ve always wanted to make the world a little better, so from there, I did a Masters in environmental hydrogeology to work at figuring out solutions to environmental issues. I ended up working in the environmental buisness but not for the environment and realised my vision of the world was probably too idealistic! I love my job, but I definitely find it challenging sometimes to not be able to act on the bigger picture, to act on modifying the regulations and the laws instead of being restreint by them. So here I am, in Toronto doing the training for an oversea placement in Malawi for EWB to go work at the district level in the water and sanitation sector. I know I want to be able to make a difference in the world, not sure where (internationnally or locally) and how (changing my career or influencing the way things are done), but I know this placement is going to get me a step further on my path to success. No one asked me to go there, I was not even involved with EWB before I applied, I just felt like it was the right place and time to do this. Why now and not after university? I feel like I have a little bit more to offer, I think I gain a bit of perspective and maturity over the last years and I definitely went outside my comfort zone.
Hope you are and will continue reflecting on these things, and please send some thoughts back at me if you will.
Now back to work
Ge
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