Don’t fall into a while loop
When you do something new, there is a lot to learn. Once you have done a number of times, it falls into a repeatable, mindless algorithmic procedure. This is true for most jobs people do.
The person sitting in a Zoo counter issuing tickets or house-hold tasks involving cleaning, cooking or even running the same test-suite on a software and reporting bugs, all fall into this.
I know of many who say they love their sales job mainly because it involves travelling and meeting people. They hate sitting at a desk and doing something. Every time they move out, it brings a fresh, new experience. That’s what motivates them beyond the pay check.
There are others who don’t like to move around. Especially people who have the mind to sling code. They just need a silent place with no one around where they can be with their mind and code.
I am sure there are a less of more adventurous jobs like a private investigator chasing a cheating husband or the Bond types who do espionage.
But, broadly, whatever you do, if you end up repeating the same work, it pushes you into a cage. You have to be a saint to do the same thing again and again. In fact, you will find yourself becoming opposite of a saint, a grumbling, impatient, irritable, frustrated bloke. If there is a magical way to look into the past of this person, you will find a cheerful kid running around playing and laughing. A little fast forward from there will still show an young man or woman in college a lot more hopeful about living this life.
Most jobs are utterly boring to do. No matter how high-tech they are or the goodies they come with. That’s why big organizations have a hierarchy of managers to oversee the completion of it. If you are working for someone who is not sure of your skill or your ability to deliver, you will run through double misery. One of the job and the other of reporting the status of the job.
Large majority does a mutiny of the monotony by resorting to other ‘creative’ things. It can be learning a new skill. There are plenty of them today. Or going places or simply bingeing on the infinity of videos or gossips on the Web. The latter of course cannot be called learning as it dumbs down your mind instead of igniting it.
This is really where one can make a difference. Suppose you were interested in Physics and experiments in college. But then you somehow ended up doing an MBA for getting an analyst position, sitting somewhere and crunching numbers. And you hate it to the core. If you tick all of these pre-conditions, then you can go back to your lost love, that is physics.
You can teach yourself every day a page or two from some of the best books available, conduct your own experiments assuming you can afford them from your day job, graduate into reading the research papers that are widely available and become a self-taught physicist. And who knows, you may be the next patent clerk the world will be in awe of.
Or if you liked sports, but your day job now involves looking at Emails and responding, go out on a Sunday and try dribbling a basket ball. You will find your joy back.
The real learning you do is the one that you do without looking for a certificate of completion.
Remember, finding and trying new things is what kept that child in you awake as you grew up. As you go about making money, try not to lose that child in you.
