MASTERY AND PERSONAL PROGRESS: THE SECRET TO FULFILLMENT

(This post is part of a “fulfillment” series about finding fulfillment in life and work that will be going on all week. See the introduction to the series here).

Let’s face it, not everybody can have their dream job, right? Not everybody can wake up in the morning and be genuinely excited for work. Not everybody can find something that pays the bills AND keeps them feeling happy, fulfilled, and engaged. Right?

Wrong.

I’m not unsympathetic as to why some people may think this way. As corrosive as it is, it’s a concept that has been drilled into our cognitive connections by society and peers, and reinforced by traditional education our entire life (a point that we’ll get into in a later post—the negative impact of traditional education on today’s worker, and how to overcome it).

But the truth is that it’s wrong. Let’s discuss why and what you can do about it.

First, we’re stuck with another reality. The reality that you don’t like what you do today. Right now. That you wake up in the morning and dread going to work. That you’re disengaged, unfulfilled, and stuck.

You feel stuck because you have to put food on the table. You have to provide. You have to make money.

You feel stuck because the work you do is work you’ve chosen to do (like it or not). It’s what you’ve been trained to do. It’s a career reinforced on your resume, and now you’re held hostage by it. Stuck within the gravitational pull of past choices.

You feel stuck because a significant career change will take time, and you’re unhappy NOW.

I have good news, there is something you can do now that will help.

Keep in mind, it’s not the full solution. It’s not some magic wand that will make all your troubles disappear. But it is a valid technique that has been shown to infuse your current path with a certain degree of fulfillment. It’s been shown to increase the level of happiness and engagement in people.

It’s called the Pursuit of Mastery.

Pursuing mastery at something that matters to you long term is the quickest way to infuse meaning into both life and work in the short term.

Click here for more about this concept.

This notion of Mastery is also explained in far greater detail in this post:

The pursuit of mastery and the mastery asymptote

Believe me, it works. By focusing on an attribute or skill that you want to accomplish, and pursing it with vigor, you’ll find greater fulfillment in what you’re doing now. It’s like taking a style guide for your future and overlaying it on top of your current pursuits.

By doing that, your current pursuits are put into new perspective, and you start building skills or attributes that will help as we move into the next steps in the process, which we’ll discuss over the next couple of days.

Good luck, and remember to come back for the remaining steps.

-Rusty

Note:  Thank you for being here. If you know of anyone else who is going through a difficult time with their career, please share this post series with them and invite them to join in the journey.