The Overlap of Past, Present and Future Personalities
In a conversation with a successful entrepreneur buddy of mine, he offered an interesting (to me) perspective to take with regards to making forward motion your life. His premise is that most people tend to look for work that "suits their current needs or personalities." This is wrong, according to my friend. Rather, a person should adapt his or her ideas looking for a job that will suit their future needs.
This isn't a particularly new idea; Dan Gilbert talks about it in his book "Stumbling on Happiness" (which I have not read, but have seen his TED talk that has similar content). What I think I like about my friend's perspective is that it's just skewed enough away from my current thinking that it got me thinking more.
If we stick with the "looking for a job based on current personality," what we're really doing is anchoring ourselves to our past personality — you know, the one that would rather binge watch TV than writing the next great screenplay? — and in doing so, we're limiting ourselves. What we should do instead is project our personality from the present into the future, and ask something like, "What would my personality need to be like in order to succeed at this particular job?" and "How do I adapt from where I am to where I would like to be?"
I think what really stands out about my friend's perspective is much more basic than the philosophy and psychology of happiness. Rather, it's a reminder that simply talking to other people with an open mind and an ear towards listening can offer new, even if tiny insights. And each insight is a stepping stone into the future, rather than reflection of the past.
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