A recipe for a successful career:
The picture: (The glitzy picture and the reality)
What do we mean by successful career:
Money
Achievement
Importance
Yes those are important but to pursue only those will lead to a superficial, conflictual career.
Other important (deeper) qualities of a successful career:
Respect: self respect, but it is not enough. Others respect : clients, colleagues. What you want to be respected for is also important: Integrity, ruthlessness, softness, hard…….
Fulfilment: that you have a purpose in life and you are achieving it.
Effectiveness: that you can make a difference, that you can get things done
Self-realisation: a sense of growing, of being the best you can be, of discovering new things about yourself.
A balance of self interest with other interest: Ericson: intimacy vs isolation, generativity vs despair: life tasks require us to go out of ourselves. Otherwise lonely isolated, cut off from feedback and growth.
A sense of the rightness of things: on your deathbed: I will do it all again. Wisdom vs despair.
Preparing others to follow: which is what I am doing now . You will understand the need when you get here.
The ingredients for a successful career:
Realism, openness, avid interest in life, relationships
Cooking Instructions
STEPS:
1. Develop a realistic view of yourself. We all have good and bad qualities. Know them and work on them. Don’t try to impress someone with how perfect you are. They will either see through it or draw you into a devil’s pact where you have to see them as perfect. I have been most impressed by people who with difficulty managed to face their dermons.
2. Understand that a career is not totally in your hands. Allow chance and opportunity to be. You cannot have complete control over your career. Sometimes it may go in directions you do not want it to go. Don’t waste time complaining about your bad luck. See it as an opportunity (always an opportunity). Even if it is the most unrewarding job ever there is always opportunity eg to develop your powers of endurance.
3. Look at everything as an apportunity to learn. Do not wait for your career to start when you have the perfect job. Your career has started now. I could sit on a bench and look around and learn a lot. You can learn from anything if you have an active questioning mind.
4. Take care of your relationships with colleagues. Respect them, disagree with integrity not with your ego. You have to be with them throughout your career. You would need them at one point or another. You are into psychology – your relationships should reflect what you preach.
5. Learn wisely from your superiors: not only what they teach, but their attitudes, how they live, how they relate. Learn to look beyond outward appearances. Understand the reasons behind what they do. Do not judge rashly.
This dish is best served to an interested audience and is not good to freeze.
No calories and full of vitamins.
Dr.Sandra Scicluna Calleja