Maybe it is not the environment that is creating your sense of discontent. Maybe it is the work you are doing. If you got into research because you always scored high grades in reading comprehension and verbal communication, but you do not give a hoot about socioeconomic statistics or demographic breakdowns, then you had better look long and hard into your heart, not your head, for the answer to your dilemma.
It takes passion to succeed
Many people get into a certain career track simply because they are good at something, but that does not mean that they love it. If you do not love what you do, you cannot maintain your motivation and interest. Without motivation and interest, you are doomed to a life of career mediocrity. Your work will always be so, okay, good but not great. Great work requires inspiration born out of an intense, underlying excitement about what you are doing. And that kind of excitement and inspiration guarantees success.
Really successful people do not just appear successful, they feel successful. Not because of the money they earn or the car they drive or the clothes they wear, but because they know that inside of them burns an eternal flame of passion for their work. Their work is an extension of who they are as human beings. The two cannot be separated. And even if they could never earn another penny from the work that they love, they would hock everything they own just to be able to continue doing that work.
If you do not have this feeling of passion for your work, then stop using your head to figure out what you want to do. People who use their heads try to reason out what is best for them. These are the same people who think that what you do should be what you are good at. If you are one of those who fall into this way of thinking, you will always find yourself in that inevitable trap that keeps you doing what you are good at and never loving it. It is safe and comfortable, and you will never have to worry about failure. Of course, you will never achieve greatness, either. If you can stop using your head and go into your heart, you can get in touch with what feels right to you, rather than trying to think about what is right for you. You will find your passion right there in front of you, just waiting to be recognized.
It is not that you do not know what your passion is. You do. You have always known. It has been with you since you were a kid. But somewhere along the line you were told that you were good at something or had an aptitude for it, and that is what you assumed career decisions were based on. But think back to what you have always loved doing the thing that could make you forget about time. Maybe you were totally fascinated with motion pictures as a kid and pestered your parents for a Kodak movie camera. Then you begged and borrowed to buy an 8mm editing machine and had a great time stringing family movies together and matching them up to a sound track that you taped on your cassette recorder. And now since working in an ad agency as a designer, the thing you love most is when you develop a storyboard for a television commercial and direct the Videographer and editing. That is when you notice that you could spend all day in a video editing studio. It is a thrill. But then it is time to be back to the same old thing at the agency, drawing up layouts and spacing type. Ho hum. It never occurs to you that what makes your heart sing with joy is what you could be doing for a living.
"Me," you say: "I can't be a video editor. I went to school for years to become a graphic designer. I know practically nothing about editing or operating all that computer equipment. You can't just decide overnight to change your career direction and become a video editor. And you don't just walk into a video production house and say, 'Guess what, I want to work here.'"
Well, the fact is that you can decide to be a video editor overnight, if your heart tells you that is where your passion lies. And you are right, you cannot just walk into a video production house and say you want to work there at least not if you expect to get paid. But you can ask to do an apprenticeship there and work with an editor to learn how to do that job. And what better preparation could you have for that job than your four years of graphic design background and your ad agency experience with storyboards, clients, campaigns and advertising theory? You can keep your regular job with the agency while you work weekends or nights at the production company learning the ropes. When you are ready, there just may be a job for you with that company. Or at the very least, you will have a demo reel put together to take to other production houses or television stations. And I guarantee that your first job offer as a video editor will not be far behind.
So follow what your heart is trying to tell you the next time you find yourself totally enthralled with something you are doing. Do not place limitations on yourself by deciding in advance that something is not possible. When you explore all the options, you will find that what seemed impossible at first glance was limited only by your narrow point of view. Broaden your point of view and you expand your possibilities.
