What Happens When It's No Longer Fun? 🫤
There will be deep sighs and eye rolls
Last night, I was watching a TikTok video. In it, a woman shared how she left a lucrative and enriching career as a hairstylist at an upscale salon in New York to follow her (now ex-husband) to the U.S. west coast.
She thought she craved something new but, now, a few years later, she reflects and realizes she was hasty in dismissing a good situation and believes she should have savored & leveraged those NYC relationships to find a new role instead of leaving outright.
Further, she's tried a bunch of careers in her new west coast town but “nothing feels quite right”.
The thing she doesn't seem to realize? … At the end of the day, it's all work.
After more than 30 years in the workforce, I’ve seen and experienced my share of antics. Today, I'm fortunate in that I love my current role as Director of Marketing, Communications & Development for a large non-profit org.
The reason for the good fit? Part luck and part wisdom — gleaned from years in the trenches. I’ve been hired for different positions, been self-employed, and worked for a diverse array of employers.
You Will Not Be Fulfilled All the Time
Even though I love my current role, at the end of the day, it’s still a job…
No matter whether you work for yourself or for an organization, there will be eye rolling and deep sighs and administrative boredom and long nights and weekend emails and exhausting events.
You will not be fulfilled all the time.
Here are some examples…
If you’re freelancing/self-employed:
Your favourite contact suddenly leaves the company for a new role - or just simply disappears!
Your longtime lucrative client needs to cut back on your monthly retainer due to budget constraints.
Your client (whether inadvertently or not) pushes you to do more work for them without offering to pay you more. This is also known as “scope creep.”
Or, if you’re working for someone else:
Your amazing boss decides to retire.
Your annoying colleague gets promoted.
Your company decides to go from allowing employees three days “work from home” to only one day.
The Grass Ain’t Always Greener
This is a reality check. At the same time, it’s not meant to suggest that you should stay in a dangerous work environment or put up with toxic clients. Please don’t do that. In full transparency, I’ve quit myriad jobs over my three decade career for multiple reasons including bullying, exhaustion, and personality conflicts.
As an HSP, traditional work places can be tough. The bright lights, potential lack of creativity, loud environment, constant deadlines, and awkward social activities, can make life difficult for us neurodiverse folks. At the same time, self-employment isn’t always a picnic either — just see the examples above!
No matter what your situation, please don't let an unrealistic image of the “perfect job” get in the way of you making money and moving forward in a productive way.
Until Next Time, Creative HSP - Stay Real.
Lisa
P.S. Part #3 of Spark 🌿 “Build Your HSP-Friendly Copywriting Business” is now out! This third lesson provides tips on how to land paying clients along with valuable templates on how to strategically respond to online postings looking for freelancers.
P.P.S. You may notice that, over the summer, a previously published article from Secrets from an HSP Copywriter arrives in your inbox on Fridays. Per my comment on another Substacker’s article, I’m giving myself permission to take the summer off. 🌞
This is such a great observation, Lisa.
My very first career was in consumer marketing research. I was rabidly focused on getting a management track job and after years working crap jobs and taking two years to earn an MBA, I got that job.
Two years into that job I was given a new position which required me to work for someone who was known by all to be a "problem manager." The assignment itself was very challenging and I realized I didn't like the work at all. I never, ever imagined that I would hate what I was doing for this company. It threw me into a real crisis forcing me to think seriously about what kind of work I wanted to do.
I'd love to tell you my next career was IT but it wasn't. Probably my best insight has been that careers aren't "forever" constructs for most people. We try things. They work well for awhile, years if we're fortunate, but it's not a bad thing if we outgrow our careers or our interests shift and we realize it's time to do something different.
I'd argue that the idea that people have "forever" careers is very, very outdated. People live a lot longer and the world of work is rapidly shifting. I don't think there is any one career that I would have felt fulfilled doing for 40+ years.
I think we're better off looking at employment/work as something where our talents/passions/skills can be applied to earn a living but with the understanding that we should also be sensitive to when that particular occupation is no longer purposeful and that it's OK to look for something that will better fulfill our sense of purpose and destiny.
Oh yes. It can sometimes become all about marketing, whether I’m trying to publish my writing, put together a dance gig or come up with coaching clients. Some of it is intriguing but I have to make sure it doesn’t take over the fun and creative parts (which can be just as hard but more rewarding).