Remember why you do the things you do

So here’s the situation: you took a new job that promised to be better than the previous one. Better work hours, better salary, better benefits, better title, better office, better development; simply better.

A few months go by and you start to realize that every that things are not so different at all.  Yes you are making more money, but you are spending more money on food, gas, etc. Your great work schedule is back to the old 12 to 13 hours work day. You do have better benefits but you don’t have any time to enjoy them, and suddenly the bigger office and bigger title just don’t seem to be incentive enough to convince you that you are doing better.

The typical problems of any organization start to fill your shoes with little rocks, the bureaucracy, dealing with people you don’t really like and difference of opinions with your boss make you ask your self whether you made the right choice this time.

The answer? In this case it presents itself in the form of another question: Did you choose this new job simply because it offered you better pay and a bigger title or did you took it because you really thing that it takes you closer to the life objective you’ve set for your self?

If your answer is option one, well my friend you sure are in trouble. Because it doesn’t matter how good your new employer is, you’ve chosen him for the wrong reasons, which, sooner o later, will make you tired of it.

However, if you decided to do this change because it helps you get more aligned with your life objective or personal legend, then it won’t matter how hard things may get, you’ll always have a strong and solid reason to stand by your decision.

Of course we all want better conditions as we move forward in our careers! After all these are “signals of our success” and show that we are growing as professionals. But what good does it do us to accumulate all these achievements, if we don’t have a final destination to aspire to? If we are not clear on why we do the things we do, and just do them to accumulate money and a titles, then we will always be susceptible to loosing our ground and going along superficial changes that “promise” being better, but that in reality are just another mirage like the one we are trying to leave behind.

That said, if we have a clear north, if we know what our calling is, what personal legend we are supposed to fulfill, then as we move forward we’ll be able to distinguish between the obstacles that we need to overcome to move on, the ones we need to circle around to return to our path and the small nagging tasks we hate to do but that are a condition to being able to stay in the path that will end up taking closer to where we want to reach.

So here’s a simple advice: If you haven’t done it yet, define how far you want to reach, discover and realize your personal legend; and if you already know what this is, but feel confused about whether to stay where you are right now, just take a deep breath and remember how far you want to get and how being where you are will actually help you get there.