Second, third or even fourth career?

“One ought to plan a second career while an existing one is in works. ” I thought I came across this assertion early on during my readings.

Looking back, theres not just a kernel of truth in this, but loads of wisdom embedded. Here are my takeaways for this:

1. Short sightedness or thinking of today only, not tomorrow. The moment we dont think about what the future lies ahead is the time we stop pursuing matters which might be useful one day. For example, if one is skilled or passionate about certain hobbies, why not consider building it up while one is employed. When the time is ripe, one day, that hobby can become a source of income. Some people call it gifts, some talents. Regardless, when one is pursuing matters aligned to their gifts, then one does not seem to be working at all, but having fun fine tuning their passion.
2. Most people only think about growing, building and sustaining a career, but seldom focusing on switching careers. Growing, expanding a career of choice is good, provided this aligns with ones passion, talent and skill. For every attempt to grow is also an attempt to polish rough edges, opportunity to perfect etc. So it is important that ones career path matches do ones strengths. Else the time spend to growing, building would be to waste.
3. Work vs passion vs calling. Early on, a person needs to know what is considered work, passion and calling. The 3 may be inter related and inter changeable. But most important of all is that one ought to begin with ones calling early on. How? Find our where people are most blessed by what we do. For example, if people find you skillful and can produce polished products, then by all means pursue a path in building those. Or if people are blessed by your talent to coach, counsel or even offer an advise or two, then pursue career paths along those lines. With one life to live, it is imperative this discovery early on ones life be realized.

It is futile to think that because one lives long, that one can experiment and take chance on working a plethora of skills until he/she finds what truly makes him/her ‘happy’.

For me, happiness after all is doing things that one loves and enjoy. Time becomes a limiting factor, because when one enjoys what he/she does, there is no way one can stop.

Hope Im making sense this 2024!