Since graduation is a few weeks away, and since that makes this a good time to think about what kind of career I want to work towards pursuing, this article caught my eye from the "Learning by H.E.A.R.T." archives: "The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love."
Basically, the author of the article, professor of economics Robert H. Frank, argues that while financial gain does factor into future happiness, that doesn't mean the smartest decision is to go for the soul-sucking, highest-paying job. Instead, he makes the case that the most financially successful people are often the ones who are experts in their field, spending thousands of hours to gain skills and rise above the competition.
For that reason, Frank advises his students to find the jobs most closely related to any activity that has ever wholly engrossed them. That way, they'll enjoy what they do enough to log in the thousands of hours required to be an expert, and whether or not they end up being wildly successful at it, they'll at least be happy.
He elaborates on all of this with the following:
The happiness literature has identified one of the most deeply satisfying human psychological states to be one called “flow.” It occurs when you are so immersed in an activity that you lose track of the passage of time. If you can land a job that enables you to experience substantial periods of flow, you will be among the most fortunate people on the planet.
And while the whole "future career" discussion might require a little more contemplation than that, it's definitely worth keeping in mind during that contemplation.
Image Credit: Whiteboard, by jraffin. Source: Pixabay.
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