Forget that you’re working a job, or that you’re studying at med school. Forget that you’re doing all the things you’re supposed to.
Who are you without any of those?
Who are you beyond your career?
Can you survive in a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario with your skills?
Sometimes, I find myself pondering these peculiar questions. We have more than what our parents had, yet we’re softer and less diverse in terms of real-life skills. Life is decent — there’s a balance between adrenaline and boredom. But it feels like our problems are on an entirely new existential plane.
Sometimes, life is so slow, and sometimes, it is too fast. Yin and yang, action and inaction — it’s almost as if one were leading to the other. With the freedom of choice and the gift of abundance, we have the privilege to decide if we want to indulge in the momentary rushes of life or the peacefulness it offers.
But we get stuck in the middle because we want a little bit of both. We’re greedy little suckers, no? A generation that has more than enough yet not the skills to sustain the state of it. We’re all busy chasing skills that earn money but not the ones that make life self-fulfilling and sustainable.
We’re taught to follow in the footsteps of successful careers where we only develop specific skills that are most likely to land us a job — a stable income. And we use it to explore everything that life offers and teach our kids the same. It sounds like a wise plan.
But at what cost?
People are building their entire personalities around this fast-selling lifestyle. Behind the six-figure salaries are people who’ve never used a knife or cared for a plant. They can afford the things they want and hire the people they need but that’s about it. Without money, they’re shallow. And with it, they’re pretentious.
Remember that rich brat in school you despised? The one who always got everything done, but didn’t do it himself? Please don’t blame him for being like that. Money does that to people. He was merely a victim of privilege.
So who are you when no one is watching?
Who would you be if you didn’t have the money that you need?
Honestly, this is a problem for the generation that has enough. This is a question for the kids whose parents have made their life easy. It’s for those people who don’t know who they are without their jobs.
If I ask you to pitch yourself to the world, how would you do it?
“Who are you? And why should we believe what you say?”
If you can’t think of an answer as you read this, take your time and think about this. Don’t worry, you’re not going to “win in life” even if you had an answer. But hopefully, it provokes you enough to think about it.
Just like how managers love a candidate who can do more than what the job requires of him, everyone loves a partner who can do more than what is expected of him.
It is our career that gives us the flexibility of pursuing everything we want at our own pace and terms. But it shouldn’t be the only thing you excel at. Maybe you could find a secondary skill — something that you can identify for outside work. It could be as simple as “I’m a gardener taking care of a personal garden” to “I’m a 2023 triathlon medalist”.
Create opportunities to identify yourself beyond just your work. Maybe it could solve some of the great “existential” dilemmas you have. Or maybe it could just lead to a more wholesome and balanced life.
If all you’ve got to offer is X, X is all that one is going to take.
So before you go and give a hundred per cent to your job tomorrow, remember to give a hundred and ten per cent to yourself because you are not what you do for a living, but what you do outside it.
Here’s the thing. I run a podcast. And because you’re great readers, I know you’re great listeners too. Everything I write, I narrate in my podcast. I won’t lie when I tell you that the podcast has helped me, more than anyone. So if you think you’d like to revisit my thoughts, you can head to my podcast, Within 5 Minutes, which serves as an audio library for these blogs — https://linktr.ee/hacchuu
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