Prepare for success
I know I am not the only one who worked super hard in my twenties. After years of undergraduate and master studies, I moved countries, did a PhD and spent sleepless nights trying to publish results, worked in parallel to that, learned how to network, got mentors, worked some more, volunteered — just to be where I am now.
And while I absolutely love where I am now, and feel grateful for it every day, I still have more hopes for the future. There are still many more metaphorical mountain peaks I aim to conquer. But where I am now is a place I have never been in before — it’s a state of mind that tastes of freedom.
Let me explain.
If you are like me, and especially if you weren’t born into wealth, you likely had to tolerate a lot of injustice as you were building your career and your brand.
Maybe it was a low salary in your first couple of jobs, although you were over-performing even the senior people. Maybe you even worked for free (as a great learning opportunity).
Maybe it was a horrible flat or neighbourhood you had to live in, because you couldn’t afford anything else. Maybe your parents weren’t supportive of you and your dreams.
Maybe you couldn’t rock the boat because you were on a work visa, and that visa was connected to your job. (Okay, this last one is maybe a very personal example.)
Whatever it was, I bet it wasn’t fun but you had no choice. Work hard, head down and don’t complain. You probably often repeated the famous “this sucks, but it’s just until… <fill in the blanks>”.
And then, one day you wake up, and your ‘until’ time point is here. As a matter of fact, it was probably there for a while, you were just too busy tolerating life to notice. Also, it manifests in a completely different way to everyone, it’s not easy to spot it.
But when you do notice, everything changes. You realise you can move apartments if your current one doesn’t support you in living your best life. Now, you realise you can complain and you should speak up. And if you’re really lucky — maybe that job now needs you more than you need the job, so you can negotiate a better salary. Maybe you can get a better job. Or maybe you even can take a short sabbatical, and try to build that idea that you daydream about or write that book. Maybe you can read more, maybe you can learn a new skill. Maybe you can give back by mentoring undergraduate students.
The world is yours (more or less), but you have to be ready to make these choices. That’s what I mean when I say prepare for success.
Take some time to understand your world, and be brave. Risks always feel uncomfortable but try to feel up the level of discomfort you are okay with, and start there. Even if the threshold is low at the beginning, it will get better with time.
You just need to keep an eye on where you are in the journey, and the second it starts tasting of freedom — catch it!
