A natural career, or what I call an “ideal career”, feels good and peaceful because it flows NATURALLY from who you are. There is no conflict and no stress. It’s all about YOU growing through your work.
The normal career is different, and comes from what you THINK you should do in society, in order to fit the “norms.”
Here is a brief, but not exhaustive, list of differences between the normal vs the natural career:
NORMAL CAREER is based on education and skill
NATURAL CAREER is based on education, skill and TALENT, PASSION AND VALUES
NORMAL CAREER gets you dollars
NATURAL CAREER gets you dollars and peace of mind, passion, fulfillment
NORMAL CAREER is controlled by external factors (your boss, your employer organization, office politics, industry, marketplace, the economy)
NATURAL CAREER is controlled by you. You can stop anytime, start anytime, change anytime.
NORMAL CAREER focuses on you as a “human resource”
NATURAL CAREER focuses on you as a “resourceful human and spirit”
NORMAL CAREER is unremarkable. You can be replaced relatively easily if something happens to you.
NATURAL CAREER is remarkable. You cannot be replaced, as a creator of unique solutions.
NORMAL CAREER is based on actions, and the execution of routine cognitive functions.
NATURAL CAREER is based on ideas, inspiration, and actions flowing from ideas and inspiration.
NORMAL CAREER focuses on you as a worker.
NATURAL CAREER focuses on you as a creator, an artist, a being capable of infinite creativity.
NORMAL CAREER allows your bank account to grow.
NATURAL CAREER allows YOU to grow, and as a natural result, your income grows (without any limit imposed by the employer).
NORMAL CAREER is something you do out of necessity, to pay the bills or save money for retirement.
NATURAL CAREER is something you do because you can’t help it. It’s who you are. You’d do it for free because you enjoy it so much, and because you grow through your work.
NORMAL CAREER forces you to “fit” into the current employment system created by society and corporations. You have to abandon certain aspects of who you are, and sacrifice your uniqueness to fit corporate standards and culture.
NATURAL CAREER allows you to create your own solutions, and offer it to anyone in society who could benefit from them. You don’t have to “fit” anybody else’s standards or culture. You simply offer your talent to the client’s reason, and there are tons of clients so you never have to compromise on critical matters (although you can adapt your solutions to specifically fit each client situation or challenge).
NORMAL CAREER won’t likely give you financial freedom. The best you can hope for is to be able to retire at age 65.
NATURAL CAREER can give you financial freedom in your 40s or even 30s, since income is not based on number of hours worked, but on the value of your solutions and the quantity of those solutions offered to the world.
NORMAL CAREER is one where you have only ONE client: your employer.
NATURAL CAREER is one where you can have an unlimited number of clients, resulting in unlimited income (multiple streams of income, both passive and active; multiple formats of compensation; etc.).
NORMAL CAREER is what the educational system, the government, the news media, and corporations encourage you to have, because it fits THEIR norms and thus allows them to easily “manage” masses of people.
NATURAL CAREER is what successful and inspiring ideal careerists encourage you to pursue. It is an individual journey that requires courage, guts, enthusiasm, knowledge and inspiration from authentic leaders and teachers.
NORMAL CAREER is centered around the corporation, or what Shoshana Zuboff, in her book The Support Economy, calls the “enterprise logic.”
NATURAL CAREER is centered around YOU, as a creative, sovereign being endowed with an infinite capacity to imagine and create solutions. It is based on your heart’s longing, supported by your mind’s logic.
