Commitment Phobic Part 1

What if I sign up for the rest of my life to some miserable job where I am bored to tears and it eats up my life and wastes my best abilities? Getting stuck in the wrong career is like a horror movie where I'm buried and no-one hears my screams!


What Scanners really want is a life fill of learning, exploring new fields and starting something new whenever they feel like it.

What they THINK they will get is a one duty job, one niche with NO allowance or room to expand.


Below is a list of concerns and worries that Scanners really think when they think commitment. These are what Scanners told Barbara Sher in Refuse to Choose.

1 - you must choose one and only one path in life

 2 - everything you love has to be a career - doing something for pleasure doesn't count

3 - if you are not in love with your job it will be living hell

4 - you have to get it right because every choice costs time, money and training

5 - once you have made your choice - it becomes a life sentence with no chance of parole

6 - if you are not passionate to the point of obsession, you will never be content in that one job

Guess what, says Barbara. Nothing on this list is true!!!


Below are some of Barbara's suggestions and my experiences of the above concerns. 
  
1
Most people these days will have several careers during their working life.

These days are no longer my fathers days!!! My father didn't change his career at all. He was an accountant for almost 40 years. He told me once that he enjoyed  it, but was not passionate about accounting. He even continued with doing the finances of his church and with the local community help service, after he was forced to retire due to ill health. THAT is what my dad taught me. One job, one career. For life. So to me, being a Scanner, yes it is a prison sentence!!


2
Everything you love can be done for money or for pleasure, Not all of your interests can be come moneymakers. How do you choose? 


This is Barbara's suggestion - Pick the one that makes a living and doesn't take up too much time, and do the rest for leisure. 

I think this is what Barbara calls a "Good enough" job!!

This is what I ended up having to do. I had 2 "Good enough" jobs for about 6 years each

After I emigrated to Canada, my lack of "Canadian experience" (euphemism for discrimination against immigrants by employers) meant that I didn't last long in any of the jobs I had - not more than 1 year at the most. I was never promoted nor did I ever get into management. After several years of job hopping, I was forced to stop working for health reasons and I haven't been back to any job for the last 5 years. My health concerns are still ongoing. 


3
If you are not in love with your job it will be living hell.

NOT TRUE. 

The trick is to find the right transferable skill set for you, that lets you work anywhere, and then you just need to find the right environment (employer) in which to use that skill set.

It's not the actual job or skill set that that you need to get right - it's the management or (for scanners) the environment. If you can learn a TRANSFERABLE SKILL SET, then you can go anywhere and find the right place for you!!!

In Refuse to Choose there are some good examples. 

The accountant who works on Canadian prairie ranches. He rounds up the cows by day and does the accounting books in the evenings. His passion was to be a cowboy!!

A psychologist who works for a professional football team. She wanted to play football, but being a female meant she couldn't. So she now works for a football team by counselling the players on the team.

4
You have to get it right because every choice costs time, money and training

Professional careers such as doctor and lawyers do take a lot of training yes. But most others are maybe just 1 or 2 years, and most do NOT need to have a bachelors degree. 

I personally think that employers demand applicants with degrees, because they just want to have smart people working for them rather than high school dropouts.

Scanners really need to choose a transferable skill set - one that can work with a variety of employers

I ended up becoming an administrator, since admin skills are easily transferable. I even completed a 14 month Business Administration Diploma course. But I was never able to find the right employer.


5
Once you have made your choice - it becomes a life sentence with no chance of parole.

NOT any more!! This is plain flat out FALSE. The work place no longer expects anyone to stay with the same employer or job for 40 years. Even though my father was an accountant, he had 3 different employers in 40 years. 2 employers for 16 years each and one job in between those two employers for 4 years.


6
If you are not passionate to the point of obsession, you will never be content

Forget about finding that one passion because that will never happen. Instead, do everything that interests you.  And do NOT FEEL guilty about it!!!

Epilogue.

So does this mean that scanners don't have to commit to anything??

NO,  says Barbara Sher. Scanners must commit to everything that interests them!!!!