Photo credit: huffingtonpost.com
I’m terrible at finding my way around places. Even with the most elaborate of GPS, I still manage to take the wrong turn, end up in the wrong state, or the right shoe store. Most of us have experienced that moment when you start asking yourself where you went wrong. Like when you pick a career or job and wake up one morning wondering if you missed a professional turn, and how to go back and fix it. And because we are not naturally good at knowing right off the bat what we’ll enjoy and what we’ll hate, we end up trying different directions. The problem is, when we land at the wrong destination (or shoe store), we tend to call it failure, get stuck there, and spend all our money, time, and hope.
The more we try to overcome this sense of failure, the deeper we sink, and the worse off the choices we make. And the bigger our tendency to pick the wrong jobs, then to frantically try to escape them, just so we can go on and pick another wrong job all over again.
These are a few ways to trick your mind into cutting to the chase and stop picking the wrong job (or shoe for that matter):
1. It was never about the job! Stop thinking it’s about the right job, the right career, or the right brand of GPS (I bought the best out there, and still got miserably lost). There’s no right career path, and you can always find a better shoe out there. It’s about you, who you are, what you believe in, and how much you want what you want. Until you have clarity as to that stuff, you’ll be stuck, even if you look successful where you’re stuck.
2. Never buy at the first offer! In my home country of Senegal, purchasing anything without haggling is a capital sin. Most likely, even the nicest of sellers is trying to con you! If the item’s really worth 50CFA, they’ll start quoting prices at 100CFA. They use what scientists call “anchoring”, or the human tendency to make decisions based on the first piece of information received.
So next time you get ready to pick a job, take a detour into any West African market. You’ll probably get an overpriced item, and a lifelong lesson to make up for it.
3. Get the real deal! Some random guy once tried to sell me a contraband bag in Chinatown. He followed me for a whole hour, asking me if I wanted a Chanel bag. Of course I want a Chanel bag, who doesn’t want a Chanel bag? Out of curiosity, I followed him to some back alley, down some random, dark basement with dirty walls littered with fake Chanel bags. And I mumbled thanks and ran out, because I wanted a Chanel bag, but not one from a dark, scary basement with dirty walls…
It’s the same with wrong jobs. They look like the real deal, they may even feel like the real deal. Yet you’ve gotta get down to the basement, and check them out first. You’ve got to ask the right questions, get the real job description, and take a good look at your surroundings. Get your Chanel right!
The Corporate Sis.
