I probably fall in the middle of all these things. I have pretty much had the same “career” for 20 years but fell into it by accident and am an aspiring blogger/thinker/digital nomad. It’s important to me to believe in possibilities – 2nd career, growth mindset vs. fixed mindset, manifestation…anything that implies the best is yet to come (or maybe if not “the best” cause right now is pretty good but at least – nothing is locked in). I vacillate between feeling proud of my accomplishments and feeling like I’ve never really pushed myself to “my full potential”.
Because I believe these things for myself, I believe them for other people. I am the one who always says things like “You hate your job, phooey, what do you want to do? You can do anything you want, be anything you want! Here, let me send you an article I just read.” Yes – that often annoys the heck out of my friends, family, co-workers and strangers on the train…you get the picture.
Now I can share it here! I get to feel the joy of offering nuggets that I’m sure will be the catalyst for amazing things 👏👏👏 and all the people around me have a choice in whether or not they want to absorb my latest pearl of wisdom 🙂
Here’s my current offering: It’s Never Too Late to Start a Brilliant Career, according to Rich Karlgaard who wrote the WSJ 5/4/19 Saturday Essay, adapted from his book: “Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement” (Crown Currency).
What compelled me to share this essay was the science he’s using to support his argument. I strongly believe that much of our behavior is actually driven by biology and that if we understand the biology we’ll have more success with our choices.
The first time I was exposed to the concept of executive function and the tie to the prefrontal cortex was in my first year of college – in the same Psych 101 class is taken by pretty much everyone who hasn’t figured out what they’ll be. I remember the professor leading a conversation about adolescents not truly understanding consequences until they form the ability for advanced causal logic, which doesn’t develop in some until late teens/early 20s – and at least in that class 20 years ago the thought was for some it never develops – or maybe not as deeply?…anyway, tangent…
The nutshell of that discussion was it made sense to me. It helped me understand some of the behavior I’d exhibited and some that I’d observed. Basically, smart kids doing dumb shit. Over the past 20 years the science on brain development / behavior has continued to grow – or maybe it’s just what interests me so I see it everywhere – but bottom line, I deeply believe that just like any other body part, our brain can grow, develop, evolve.
So – never say never, keep exploring, you can be anything you want, the haters are wrong – you do you!