I read a very funny post on Free-Range Humans entitled “The #1 Secret to Ensure You DON’T make a Mistake in Choosing Your Dream Career.” And that secret?
“Don’t do anything except mull over ‘what ifs’ for the next 10 years… [A]t least you’ll have the comfort of knowing you didn’t make any wrong moves. Because that would have sucked.”
As I read that, I started thinking about risk management. Back when I worked for nonprofits in supervising volunteers and then in providing consulting services to agencies, I was involved with organizational risk management because, hey, having clients working with volunteers from the community was inherently risky.
Linda Graff, who is one of the greats in risk management for volunteer programs, had this to say in a book of hers entitled Best of All:
“…keep in mind that life is full of risks. If we needed a guarantee of zero risk, most of us would never get out of bed, drive a car, board a plane, invest our money, or allow our children out of the house. The mere presence of risks…should be neither the focus of attention nor a cause for alarm. What is important is how we manage those risks.“
You know, Linda’s got it right. While she was talking about the operations of a nonprofit’s volunteer program, the same can be said of the management of a job search or a career.
Risks abound everywhere. No matter the choices you make, whether you decide to make a change or stay the course, there is risk. The risk of a mistake being made because you took a chance or a risk of a missed opportunity because you stayed put.
The question, then, becomes: Which holds the greater risk? Action or inaction?
Do you stay in a job that doesn’t fulfill you but offers a degree of security, or do you take that leap to a possible dream career, not knowing if you are going to land on your feet or your face? Or, if you are unemployed, do you choose to stay in the same field or do you start over on a different career path?
How will you decide to manage the risks?
Risk Factory courtesy of kyz
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I felt sorry for the people at work my age five years ago. So many of them had started working as soon as they finished college. No break. Got married a few years later. Bought a house. Had kids. Nothing wrong with that path, but be sure that’s what you want before you step on it, because once you’re on it, there is no getting off. Once you have kids, you have to take care of them.
My approach was that I could always find the money, but I wouldn’t have the time, so I have traveled and taken adventure when I could. This approach is not for everyone, but I have never regretted a thing.
That’s a very powerful thing to have lived your life with no regrets. It shows a great sense of self-awareness.
Not everyone possesses that, so instead they do what they think they “should” — go to work, do the marriage/house/kids thing. It’s very prescribed and easy because it is widely accepted. And, yeah, it is what some people want (myself included). I think it’s sad that some folks go this route because they’ve been told to, but then not doing what was really “right” for them. When that happens, you then see individuals having mid-life crises years later.
In the current situation, however, the idea of not being able to get off once you go down a certain path is gone. After being forced out of jobs due to companies downsizing or closing, people now have the freedom to make other choices, especially since getting another position in a given field is not a guarantee.
Have you seen the trailer for a movie called Lemonade? It’s a documentary that profiles individuals who made changes in their lives after being laid off from their jobs. I hope to be able to see it when it comes out here in WI.
Thanks for the comments, CF!
Glad you liked my post
I love your article too. It’s funny how action is viewed as a risk, but, in line with the frog-in-a-boiling-pan analogy, inaction is often just as risky…
Thank you!
Your analogy is a good one. A thought process that I think can interfere with seeing the magnitude of the risk faced through inaction would be that sense of “the known vs. the unknown.” People can acknowledge that, yes, the current situation sucks, but at least it’s familiar. What’s out there could be a lot worse.
The thing is, it could also be a whole lot better.
Melissa, you’re right — people are being forced into changes. I was thinking more of what some of my co-workers told me — that they wished they had taken the time to travel and have adventures before they had started their families and careers. Careers can be changed and delayed, but children must be fed and schooled. There is nothing wrong with marriage and kids — I think marriage is great and would have loved to have kids but we are too old for that. Once you have committed to having children, though, you have closed off a lot of other options. That’s all.
Yes, I understand. Responsibilities definitely change when kids enter the picture.
Like I said before, it’s too bad that people follow the societal pressures that say a certain path is the most desired instead of listening to what they really want. If they would really know themselves, there would be fewer individuals with the regrets that you talk about.