I stumbled upon a TED talk from a very inspiring young thought leader called @BenjaminTodd who founded the non-profit career guidance organization 80,000 Hours (the avg. number of working hours over a career).
I’m still digesting his challenge of my long established belief that to have a fulfilling career you should find your deepest interests and follow your passion or calling. For many people interests and passions change over time and as a result they may not be the solid foundation that we perceive them to be. A much more sustainable anchor is finding where you can add most value to society over your lifetime. To note, this can be done in many different ways; for some this means joining a non profit, for others it means joining the corporate world and contributing inside or on the side, for others it means starting companies…there are no shortage of problems and ways to address them. Value to society is a combination of finding big problems where your skills will have a measurable and significant impact on the people who suffer from those problems.
80,000 hours presents the following 6 ingredients for a fulfilling career:
- Work you’re good at
- Work that helps others
- Engaging work that lets you enter a state of flow (freedom, variety, clear tasks, feedback)
- Supportive colleagues
- A job that meets your basic needs, like fair pay, a short commute and reasonable hours
- A job that fits your personal life
I would just add that achievement and success are paramount to really feeling fulfilled over the long-run. Being able to pin point your specific contribution to solving a big problem is enormously rewarding.
As most things in life, this is easier said than done, but we have a responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones and society at large to put this into practice.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this thought provoking guidance.
