Career

Career is important to most people, especially to young people. When you're young, career is such a BIG DEAL. We feel the need to prove ourselves to the world through what job we have, the amount of time it took us to find a job after graduation, the salary, the status of the organization, our success at the job, etc. You find that many people even bluff about how happy they are in their job in fear of seeming unsuccessful because they haven't found their 'it' job yet after only a few years of graduation. In reality, you may only get to your 'it' job when you're 40 so why not just ride the wave and  remain open to opportunities that tug at your heart? I began to ask my self, why is career such a big deal? What about the rest of your life? Why don't we try to measure success based on true happiness in our overall life as opposed to the mere success in our career? Which by the way, is most often based on social and professional standards as opposed to our own criteria for success. Social constructivism is so powerful and hard to break out of. I met a young girl in her 3rd year of University at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference (a yearly conference held in Toronto). She was studying what I had studied in University and was caught up in the same pressures of pursuing the 'next best steps' to be successful that everyone in our field (and other fields) suffered from. So, naturally she was confused between what she wanted to do and what a profession asked of her. Since I had somewhat followed the 'must do' vs the 'what my heart desires' route, I told her flat out that, yes, you end up with a good job that pays well but if your heart is not in it then it won't mean anything after a few years of just following a script. A good balance between whatever you consider to be logical and your desires is a wise way to go. She told me that it was the best advice she had received so far. That comment reassured me as well. It took me many years to figure that out and even with that knowledge, it does take cojones to break barriers, follow your heart's desires (if you can even manage to gage that voice within) and just plunge in!!