silentcorner

It’s amazing how time oriented the human race is (myself included). A simple date, January 1, can cause one to suddenly reminisce about their lives. Now, I have many things to reminisce about over the last year, some things that went well, many that didn’t, and many things to think about for the next year, but I’m not about to lay all of that out on a public website. I’m just not that public of a person (the fact I even have a weblog now is a big change for me, and you’ll probably notice that much of its content at best only borders on personal).

However, an article I read today in Fast Company titled “What Should I Do With My Life?” particularly caught my attention. The article’s focus is on careers, and properly defining success. I’ve been in IT my entire professional life (that would be 14 years now), originally in development and now entirely systems and networking along with some managerial with my primary focus for the last 6 years being operating and maintaining Internet web site systems and networks for a few different Chicago companies. There was a time that I really enjoyed what I do, I worked 80 hours a week, and when I’d get up every morning, I was driven to work hard, sometimes so much as to get taken advantage of for that passion. Now I’m almost on the opposite end of the spectrum, getting decent compensation for what I do, but spending much of my day at work wishing I was somewhere else.

One particular point in the article is a point I think I particularly fail at right now, that being focusing more on “What am I good at?” instead of “What should I do with my life?” I have a fear, I believe, at leaving what I know I can do well, to do something I want to do. That’s compounded by the fact I haven’t figured out yet what it is I want to do. I’ve dabbled here and there with different things, including doing some of my own businesses, but never stuck with anything yet, always falling back on what I know I can do well.

Anyway, if you are one of those select few that are very passionate about your work, I salute you. If you’re one of the rest of us, I recommend reading that article in Fast Company if for no other reason then to stimulate thought… feel free to leave some of it as a comment if you like. I know it’s one thing I’d like to focus on myself this year. One of my friends quit his job working with computers to become a fireman and so far I think it’s been one of the best decisions of his life.