Body of work:
on charting your own path
The first step is finding internal (not external) motivation; a next step is bringing that self-integrity to your work. What does fulfilling work mean for you? Your answer may be a job description, but it could just as easily be a set of characteristics, a driving passion, or a list of things you know you don’t want to do! Career coach Pamela Slim writes that we can think of building bodies of work, rather than adhering to a single career path (read her post). That concept has a lot of resonance for me.
It took me a few years to figure this out, but I finally realized that I do better when I work across fields rather than focusing on going deep into a single discipline (read about my frustration with trying to do the latter). Our society traditionally places a lot of value on expertise, as it should, and traditional career paths are structured with that in mind. But the world changes always, and with the internet, I think there’s finally growing appreciation for breadth, as well as depth, of knowledge — and there are more expressions for interdisciplinarity and synthesis than ever before. Some of us are better suited to building connections than mastering any one subject, and it makes sense to see that as a strength, not as a liability. Read my 2011 post explaining this insight.
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 