People who are stuck in a paradigm of work that they don’t believe in will often have a vague feeling of discomfort and discontent within them. This can take the form of a frustration, or a question. When it is framed as a question, they’re able to ask and explore the answer to the question. This process is called “the search”.
Not everyone is blessed with the curse of the search. It might be related to one’s privileges, exposures, childhood, or other factors. In any case, if you are someone who’s affected by the search, you might try the following:
- reading more books
- talking to and asking questions to more people
- working in various different groups and careers
The method
People doing the search may start from different places, but they converge on one method — the action-reflection cycle. Here’s what an action reflection-cycle looks like:
- You may have done something.
- You think about it and evaluate whether you have what you wanted.
- You do something differently based on your thoughts above.
- Go to step 1.
Depending on who you are there are two outcomes possible.
The search that ends
After a bit of exploring you will find some work that fits your hole perfectly. You will enjoy doing it, you will find meaning, you will get satisfaction, you will probably be able to make money too.
Some people call this ikigai.
The search that never ends
When you have finished reading all the bestsellers and the most obscure book that you found a dusty copy of in an old library, when you have finished talking to the last person on earth, and when you have said no to all the groups that you could easily have made a career in, if you are in this unlucky group, you’ll eventually come to the conclusion that there is no end to the search.
Because your search can only end when all of the world’s problems are solved. And they never can be.
So you’ll keep going through the action-reflection cycle (probably doing better and better each time). And then one day you die.
This post was written inspired by a discussion with Avani and Gayatri on a similar topic.
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