The Powerful Relationship Between Vocation And Work Success
Since childhood, all human beings are in an ongoing success evaluation process Our parents try to enroll us in the best schools (from within their means) to be able to face the challenge of “being successful.” Now more than ever we find schools with so many names, methodologies, theories, that sometimes we don’t even know what they mean.
The reality is that there can be great, incredible work at school, but there are many of us psychologists who vote on how, once people get home, they throw all previous progress overboard. This is because each person, from their perspective, has a completely different vision of success.
What is the relationship between vocation and job success? How do we understand what it means to succeed in life through professional careers?
Let’s first understand the generational perspective, without a doubt the “Baby Boomers” (born between 1946 and 1965) experienced such an important political, social and cultural change that for them work is more than a lifestyle. According to this generation’s point of view, the work had to be dignified, respectable and if people lasted 30 years in the same position or company, that was a reflection that success was guaranteed, since it was synonymous with not only professional but family stability.
Generation X is the one that currently moves the world of work They received that name because their previous generation could not understand it, in fact, they said they had no direction. The strongest change that this generation introduced in the world of work was moving from electrical appliances to electronic devices, the use of the Internet, email, etc.
The way members of Generation X see success has to do with climbing positions within companies. For them it is very important to work in an organization, they seek economic stability. Few understand entrepreneurship; In fact, I dare say that many see it with fear.
The emergence of the millennial
However, the “Millenials”, famous for being a controversial and poorly understood generation, They are people who seek success not only in a company They look for short-term projects that help them express all their intelligence and enhance their creativity. They are not interested in working for many years in a company, which is why we find so many entrepreneurs in this generation.
Their vision of success is to meet new people, new cultures, change projects easily, be able to manage their time, not depend on an organization, etc.
Forming the new idea of success
We have already seen that the idea of professional progress has been mutating over time. So how do you achieve success?
Without a doubt, one thing that is clear is that people who do what they love, today have greater opportunities to achieve success. The vocation is fundamental in the process , and there is increasing concern that human beings convert their vocation into some work project. Here we have as an example great people like Steve Jobs, Indra Nooyi, Jack Ma, among others.
Thus, currently the idea of success that is gradually being imposed has to do with the idea of freedom and expanding the domain of work success to the area of personal development. Learn skills that are significant from an intimate and existential point of view, learn skills that can be transferred to other types of jobs, no matter how different they may be from what we have become accustomed to.
In short, success and vocation have merged into one in response to an increasingly flexible work environment. This is a reflection of the constant need to adapt to change.
Developing a vocation from a young age
Many times we think that the vocation must begin in the last 2 years of high school and that is not the case, it is a process that lasts many years. For this reason, I propose 3 aspects that must be taken into account and in turn work on them with the child’s development. These are:
Educational
It is essential that from childhood children learn skills that help them solve problems , oriented towards specific objectives. Increasingly, employers tell us that they can’t find talent; This is because in most countries they are educated to memorize and not to solve.
Social
When deciding on a career, many young people are more concerned about going to the same school as their best friend or boyfriend, than about researching which is the best option for their future. Besides We have too many career taboos (university or not) , which are misdiagnosed. How many times have we not heard? “Don’t study that career because you’re going to die of hunger.”
Individual
It is essential that people worry about their physical and psychological health. In this way they will be able to face life from a balanced perspective. My best recommendation is to travel, get to know other places and cultures; that helps to expand the perspective with which reality is interpreted and helps to adopt more flexible thinking. Learn about other ideologies, increase creativity, know what is being done elsewhere and what can work in our projects.
It is clear that the relationship between vocation and success comes not only from knowing how to choose a career, but from a long and fun personal preparation. But we must understand that in order to achieve success, we need a clear path and objectives. Parents must help our children to know themselves, provide them with information, do not stigmatize their beliefs or their vocation and much less think that some career or another is less or more important.
To the extent that as a society we learn to value and respect each profession, we will be able to understand that each one, from their starting point, is trying to gradually place the step that will take us to transcendence.
