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Wisdom Under Fire: Follow Your Passion · Unspoken Career Truths

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  Welcome to Unspoken Career Truths.
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  I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert. And I'm Kyra Wood.
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  And we're here to be the Co workers you can trust.
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  In just 10 minutes, we'll cover the strategies you need, the
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  mistakes to avoid, and the insider secrets no one tells you
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  so you can show up with confidence at work.
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  We are here for wisdom under fire, Woo.
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  Hoo, my favorite, can't wait. Well, we are talking about
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  follow your passion, or as Lauren wanted to call it, do
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  what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.
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  So let's talk about if this is advice you've gotten, if it's
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  good advice, if it's worked for you, if it's failed for you.
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  What do you think? 1st, we should start kind of
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  with the origin of the phrase. If you Google this, which is
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  what I did to find the origin of the phrase, I'm very sorry to
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  all of the librarians listening. It actually comes up like
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  attributed to a lot of different people.
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  Could you just Mark Twain, Mark Anthony?
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  So I think we can just safely say that this concept.
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  Mark Anthony, the Roman, not the singer.
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  Just want to clarify. Thank you.
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  Thank you, Mark. Anthony the Roman.
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  So we're talking Confucius, We're talking Marc.
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  Anthony the Roman. We could just kind of safely say
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  that this phrase has been around for a long time.
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  Yeah, I mean, I don't know about you, Cara, but I have heard this
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  so many times. I think my father said it a
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  bunch of times. I've heard it from advisors,
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  from people tossing it around, or when you complain about work
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  or you're like, oh, I love this or I love that.
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  I mean, Are you ready for my hot take, Cara?
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  Yeah, I'm ready for your hot take.
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  A job is still a job and work is still work.
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  Like I do believe that you can love your job and and I, I do
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  love my job. I've loved a lot of my past
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  jobs, but at the end of the day, it's still a job.
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  And I think I, I think it's really important to make sure
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  that your identity is not necessarily tied to it.
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  So the whole do what you love and you'll never work a day in
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  their life like you're still working.
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  It's still a job. There's still expectations, you
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  still have someone to answer to. So you can love your job and you
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  can be happy, but you're still working.
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  That's my that's my hot take. I think that's fair and I'm so
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  conflicted in this one. You talked about kind of hearing
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  this from an early age. One of the first people to say
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  this to me is my uncle, who runs his own business.
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  And he just swears by the fact that he's like, I just found the
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  thing that I love. It's impossible to hear him talk
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  about it without feeling caught up in how magical He's a
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  videographer. This, you know, his career in
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  videography has been. I have also seen him, you know,
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  frustrated in hard days. And he works weekends a lot, see
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  videos, people's weddings. You know, it's, it's a tough
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  job. It's a job, but he loves it.
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  He really sells this idea. But I'm conflicted because like
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  you, I've seen how often you can just have bad days at work.
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  You can still, you can love aspects of your work.
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  You can have your work change depending on who you're doing it
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  with and who's around you and or what you're doing it for and in
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  what cause. So there's so many ways that
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  this can pivot that it, it's a really complicated 1 and I'm,
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  I'm kind of excited if people have reactions or, you know,
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  things. One thing that inspired me to to
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  pick this as a wisdom under fire for us to debate though, is that
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  there is a little bit of psychological research that does
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  say when you choose something that's large and you know you
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  can drive towards, you're actually more apartment to
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  achieve something. Even if you don't achieve the
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  big hairy audacious goal that you initially set.
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  It's inspiring enough that the people who set really big goals
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  are the ones who are more likely to follow through on something.
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  And that intrigued me. And I think it's connected to
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  this idea of like, follow your passion.
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  And I just have to say, Cara, I feel like we've flipped the
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  script because I'm usually the one on wisdom under fire, which
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  is like, I believe it, but I don't.
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  And this one I'm like in One Direction and you're flip
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  floppy. So let's all look.
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  All that out. There.
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  I'm all over the place on this one.
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  I'm glad we're flipping the script because usually I'm like,
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  well, maybe I. Don't know.
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  Yeah. Well, and I, I think in part
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  it's because I am a writer and it's something fiction writing
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  you just, you just do it. You actually, you would do it if
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  you didn't get paid. A lot of people do it.
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  I know I'm not paid to do it. And so there's something already
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  that drives me that I'm super passionate about.
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  And but does that work, right? Exactly.
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  Is that work? And there are people who argue
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  that when you take on like you said it too, like, well, this
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  thing that you do, does it define you too much?
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  Or is it something that once you do it as work, then does it feel
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  like pressure or work? And does that change your
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  relationship with it? So there's so many questions
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  that I have, I don't know if we'll answer them on this wisdom
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  under fire, but that's why I feel so conflicted about Follow
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  your back. I get it.
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  I, I, I totally get it. I get your perspective.
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  Yeah. So I think, I guess what is our,
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  what is your advice, Lauren, kind of when someone is trying
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  to figure out what to do with their career, like I know that
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  you've worked in counseling. I would love to hear sort of how
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  do you navigate giving people advice on how to choose what to
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  do at different points in their career?
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  Well, so you hit on my college admissions career life.
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  So that was my first career. I've had many different careers,
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  but I always used to say to students, because it's really
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  hard, like freshman year of college, like picking a major,
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  I'm like, this does not determine the rest of your life
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  like and you have time to change your mind.
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  And for for college students specifically, I would always say
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  like learn life skills and learn like how you operate in certain
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  different scenarios and learn more about yourself.
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  The major stuff doesn't really apply.
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  Like I was a journalism and dance major and I'm an
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  e-commerce like who would have ever expected that?
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  So I think my advice overall is just understand what drives you
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  and make sure that you are in a career or a job that complements
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  that, right? Like for example, I was talking
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  to someone the other day and they were like, I love data and
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  analytics. Like I could sit in spreadsheets
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  like all day long that would make my eyes bleed, right?
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  Like so just know yourself and know like what environment makes
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  you thrive, what your values are and try to match that into your
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  career. And then you will love what you
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  do, which which is great, but it also takes time to figure that
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  out. And if you do something that you
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  don't like, that's great information because you know you
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  don't like it. Yeah, and that that makes a lot
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  of sense. I feel like, and I know we've
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  talked about sort of like jungle gym careers before another
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  episodes or another episode. I and I, I think that's right.
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  I feel like it's really easy at the start of something,
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  especially when you're first picking a major that a, you feel
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  like you are committing to not just a job, but an identity or
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  like what you care about and finding the things around what
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  you care about or the things that also motivate you.
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  So you might, you know, want to be a doctor, but is that because
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  you're someone who likes the data analysis of diagnostics or
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  is that because you're someone who wants to cure people?
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  Like those are two different drivers that if you understand
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  those, which one of those things you might fit into that would
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  actually help you kind of drive your career forward and again,
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  make you passionate, make you set those really exciting goals
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  that will like further and give you energy to kind of show up to
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  work not exhausted. I love the doctor example
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  because I have a good friend who went to school for medicine,
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  went to Med school and then saw like blood and like a really
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  kind of gross scenario and was like, Nope, this isn't for me.
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  And was able to pivot and is totally fine.
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  But like, you know, you're going to have those moments where you
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  might think one thing, but it leads you in another direction
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  and that's OK. And that's what's supposed to
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  happen. So just embrace those moments.
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  Yeah. What are some signs that either
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  like things are clicking for you or and you are satisfied in your
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  job and you're just having a bad day?
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  And what's the sort of red flags like actually this career?
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  I need to rethink it. I mean for me, and I think it
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  can be different for everyone, but for me, I would say like I'm
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  excited to get up and go to work everyday.
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  Like I'm not dreading, I call it Sunday scary's.
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  Like I'm not having Sunday scary's for Monday, right?
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  Like I'm excited about new projects.
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  Like I'm willing to raise my hand to do different things.
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  Like I think for me, those are kind of the signals and one
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  other point I want to make, and I want to hear yours as well.
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  Cara is it's a privilege to be able to follow your passion.
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  I just want to be clear about that because I think a lot of
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  people might have a passion that maybe might not pay the bills
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  and they need to do that for their family and that's amazing.
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  And that's OK. And maybe there's other ways
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  that you can fulfill that passion.
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  So I also just wanted to state that because sometimes not
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  everyone is able to fully follow their passion in the way they
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  want because they have other responsibilities and like that
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  makes sense. 100% And I think it's also again like there's the
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  follow your passion and then there's the like be happy at
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  work. And so there are jobs that
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  people take and then they find the values in them.
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  I read some study where actually janitors who work at either
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  schools or hospitals are often happier than janitors in other
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  places. And it's literally just because
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  when you're cleaning up at a hospital, you can really see the
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  impact that you're making on everyone's health and
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  well-being. When you're cleaning up at
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  schools, you can see the impact that you're having on children.
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  Like they're both just, you know, they're not still not fun
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  places to clean up, but they're like places that you get to see
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  the impact that the institution you work for is having on
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  people's lives. But you're right, it is a
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  totally privileged situation to kind of sit back and think, what
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  am I going to do, follow my passion?
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  We talked about college already, like people picking majors.
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  There's plenty of people that don't go to school and then
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  they're just kind of picking what is available in their area
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  or what things like also spark excitement for them.
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  Cara, what are your signs of like, being, feeling, feeling
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  passionate, work or feeling fulfilled?
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  Yeah. For me, I feel like I like to
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  always know that I have more to learn.
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  So and I've had like someone has said to me before, I like, OK,
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  if you are the smartest person in the room or you think you're
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  the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
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  And so to me, having a job where I'm learning from the people
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  around me or my industry's changing and I'm learning from
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  that, or I get you already talked about like getting to
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  start new projects. So I'm happy when those things
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  are happening and when they're not, then it's sort of time for
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  me to like look elsewhere or to challenge myself and say, where
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  do I want to go next? And I think what's exciting is
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  that this is different for everyone.
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  I've definitely had colleagues who say actually, like, I don't
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  want my job to be my passion. I have family that I care about.
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  And this, the fact that my job is a nine to five job or
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  contained hours is the best thing about my job.
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  And that is totally fine. So to recap, I mean there are
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  practical things like earning potential, cost of living,
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  market forces that all play a role in choosing your career.
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  So I think we are both in alignment that you can't always
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  follow your passion and then but there is some evidence that you
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  know, setting big long term goals actually does lead to
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  better outcome. So find the things, reflect on
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  what works and inspires you. And you know, you have to kind
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  of know what your needs are, what your tendencies are, what's
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  gonna fulfill you. But then be audacious where you
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  can, because we all sort of aspire for that, you know,
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  pursuit of happiness, that pursuit of belonging.
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  And know yourself. And I'm gonna leave it at that.
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  And that's a wrap. Thanks for joining us on
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  Unspoken Career Truths. Don't forget to follow us on
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  share it with a friend.