Have you noticed that people who either love what they do, or are really making money never talk about “career success”? Why? Because they are too busy loving what they do or making money! “Career success” is a sucker’s game. 

Second best 

“Career success, career development, career growth”, whatever you want to call it, these are all names for the second best. The second best of not daring to seek out that which really inspires you. Not daring to do something for its own sake, rather than for some status achievement of becoming a high-ranking bureaucrat in a large enterprise.  

The reality is that climbing the career ladder in corporate bureaucracies is much more about politics and CYA. The higher you go, the more mediocrity you are likely to encounter. At least, this is what I see.  

Of course, all this brings into question much of the career coaching field, full of such BS as how to develop ‘executive presence’ and what not. I can tell you now that executive presence is for suckers. Career success is for suckers. It is the refuge of those who have given-up on trying to find real meaning and inspiration in their work and are going down the route of being over-paid PowerPoint presenters. 

Career success is a sucker’s game 

Fair enough if you just need a job to pay the bills because you are yet to make a living from your passion — the sinecure is an old tradition. But, let’s not glorify work you would rather not be doing as “career success”. Let’s call it ‘what I have to do because I just have to pay the bills’. Or, ‘what I have to do because I haven’t dared to really put my heart into something’. Or, even ‘what I have to do because I haven’t looked in to what I’d rather be doing’.  

The first step to breaking free of a trap is to really see it for what it is. To acknowledge the reality of where you stand. The next question is: What beliefs keep you stuck in such a place? 

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life coaching londonHarsha is a 1:1 coach and independent thinker based in London. He empowers people to find more clarity, confidence and focus in their lives — to cut through the noise, in a world so full of it. Harsha’s new book, Machine Ego: Tragedy of the Modern Mind, is now available in paperback and Kindle through Amazon.

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