This last week has been one of introspection. I’ve been swimming, and while swimming my mind tends to chew the cud on the past. I settled on some of the deadliest career mistakes I made early on, and took a long, hard look at myself. While I’m happy to say I’ve come very far since then, I do wish somebody had warned me about them. I learned the hard way, and it cost me dearly at times. So I hope you guys get a chance to learn from my mistakes.
1) Being way too competitive
Fresh from undergrad-level studies, I was set on scoring the highest marks, winning the maximum number of competitions and answering the maximum number of questions in class. I did not care about making friends or workplace relationships. One day, a crisis struck and the very people I did not care to really connect with, pulled an all-nighter at the hospital to help me complete my assignments. On that day, I grew to respect the importance of having good friends at work. My colleagues and I spent the major share of three years together- keeping up morale, buffering each other’s stress and helping each other learn. I still prefer working alone as opposed to teams, but I make sure to keep up a good professional network.
The takeaway from this, is that the workplace isn’t high school, it is real life, and being a good person will get you further than having good test scores.
2) Failing to “waste” time
This one almost cost me my identity. As a meticulous planner and organizer, and with my hands full with work, studies, three pets (one disabled), two hobbies and living by myself for the first time ever, you can imagine how jam-packed my schedule was. Everything was penciled-in my little brown book, even the eight hours of sleep and eight mandatory glasses of water a day. This left me very little time to reflect over my day, to engage in spontaneous tug-of-war with my dogs, or watch funny cat videos on Instagram. The end result was that I became a zombie, going through the motions and running on a hamster-wheel. I was so focused on not “wasting” time that I over-scheduled my days to the point of exhaustion. I only realized how thin I had stretched myself, when I freaked out over the last-minute announcement of a holiday. Way too much spare time had come about unexpectedly, and I was in blind panic at the thought of accidentally frittering it away! I spent the rest of that day turning this over in my mind, and arriving at a balance of sorts.
The lesson here is that it is better to plan your days in broad strokes (for example: mornings for quiet study, afternoons for work, early evenings for leisure and late evenings to prepare for the next day) rather than ultra-fine detail.
3) Almost forgetting to love what I do
This was the deadliest of my three mistakes. If I had not absolutely and passionately loved what I do- explore and study the human mind- I would not have been able to spend so much of life and make so many sacrifices in its pursuit.
I started off the pursuit of my MD happily. I woke up every day eager and excited, I handled mistakes with spirit, I participated in discussions, I stayed up late reading and enjoyed it. But in a few months’ time, I began to be held to higher and higher standards. Being good was difficult, being perfect was impossible. Criticism was not always doled out constructively. The workload was sometimes staggering. I did not know many things, and sometimes I could not connect what I knew to what I faced. It was easy to complain, to grow frustrated, to dread facing another day of the same grind.
I had to make a conscious effort to remain connected to the things I loved. I reminded myself throughout the day that what I saw before me everyday was the intricacies of the human, laid out before me to explore as much as I was capable. Whenever I made a difference in somebody’s life, I would tell myself that I was using the knowledge I had gained, to help people and I would feel very, very happy.