Finding Your Why and Happiness in Your Career

This is Building Better Developers, the Develop-a-Noor podcast. We will accomplish our goals through sharing experience, improving tech skills, increasing business knowledge, and embracing life. Let's dive into the next episode. Well, hello and welcome back. We are in between seasons and going to continue this until we get into the new year. It's December right now. We're going to go through a couple more specials, sort of go through our normal year in review series of episodes as well before we get into whatever our next season will be. I say that not knowing exactly what we're going to do next. This episode, I want to talk about really sort of your why, but it also gets into the idea of happiness. Now, in the world of IT, there are a broad range, a myriad series of ways that you can do stuff and tasks that can be done and roles that exist. You can be a designer and flex your artistic muscles. You can be a manager and work with your social skills and things like leadership and things like that. You can be a coder in many, many different ways. The thing that got me onto the topic of this episode and finding happiness in whatever your best skill set is, is actually some conversations I've had where people will say, I could never sit there in front of a computer for hours all day and write code. That's the most boring thing I could ever think of. Whereas, the flip side for me, that's absolutely not the case. I have no problem sitting around and have burned many, many hours cranking through code and creating applications and various things. We all have, I think, probably even almost uniquely down to each of us, we have a mix of things that we do well and that we enjoy doing. Now if you're listening to this and you probably have something that is a IT related bent, probably software creation or one of the roles around it, something around the software development life cycle. Maybe it's writing the code and implementation. Maybe it's design, requirements gathering, testing, deployments, maybe front end, back end, middle tier, all of those different roles. Somewhere in there, there's probably a good fit for you. Maybe it may even be a mix. Maybe you really enjoy, for example, let's say implementing and testing, or maybe you enjoy designing and testing, but not really the coding implementing part. Or maybe it's the design and the code, but you don't like the test. All of those are, we'll say, valid combinations. The important thing is for you to figure out what is your cup of tea. What is your favorite? What makes you happy, essentially? This is a little different focus from some of the other things we've talked about. We've talked about expanding skills and side hustles and things like that that are a little more, really a little more biased towards maybe passive income or improving your income, career success and things like that. We're going to back it off a notch here and look at career success itself should be, I think, if you do it right, it's going to be measured in your happiness, your overall happiness through your career. It's not necessarily making the most money, probably not making the least amount of money either, but there's also going to be, depending on who you are, competing factors. For example, you may be a family person, so maybe you've got kids or a spouse or your parents or siblings. There may be some sort of a social thing you enjoy doing. Maybe you enjoy working with youth or some specific charities or causes or things like that. Your career is going to be a success, at least in your mind, which is really the only one that matters in this case. Being a success is not about what other people think about you, or at least it shouldn't be. I guess some people may feel that way, but generally speaking, it's about you. At the end of the day, you're the one that has to do this, go through the effort and face the challenges and the obstacles. We're getting this holiday season as we're getting towards the end of the year, and some of us, maybe a lot of us, are thinking about what are we going to do next year? What is our roadmap? What are our plans for not only the next quarter, but maybe the next year and maybe the next few years? Or maybe you're starting a new career and you have to figure out what your career is going to look like. I think this is a perfect time, and actually every time is a perfect time, to take a step back, take a breath, take a look at what you have done, what work you've done, what kinds of exposures you've had. Is there something in there that you love to do? Have you found your perfect role or perfect position within the IT world, or actually the corporate world itself? Or maybe within, maybe you're off doing your own thing, you've got your own business, but it's within the, maybe not as an employee, but career and making money in a business. Maybe in the business world, I guess, as opposed to the corporate world, you've found your niche. If so, congratulations. If not, maybe one of the things you want to look at this year besides, and we talk about a lot with hot skills and we have talked about expanding your knowledge for its own sake. Basically because the more you know, the more likely you've come across similar challenges, you're expanding your experiences, and it just generally makes you better. But this time, instead of thinking about expanding your skill set to expand your skill set, think about it as expanding your skill set to find your niche. I think most of us, if not all of us, are in a sense a niche. I mean, I guess in the most strict way, every person is a very well-defined niche because it's either what you are, what you like, or it's not. And I think that's where we want to find ourselves six months or a year from now, if you haven't already found that. What is your niche? Look at areas you can go, the ways that you can expand on your skills and your experience in the year ahead, or even the years ahead. Are there some areas that appeal to you? And particularly, are there some things that appeal to you more than others? Now, we have talked about the idea of you're going to be more effective and more productive if you're doing what you like, simply because it's something that essentially charges you or gives you energy versus something that really drains you. And even though, yes, work can be draining no matter what it is, if it's something you don't like, it's going to be more draining. If it's something you enjoy, it's not going to drain you as quickly. Therefore, you're going to be more productive longer doing the things you like. And if you're asked to go that extra mile, you're more likely to do it for something you like than something you don't, or someone you like versus someone you don't. If your greatest enemy asks you to pass the ketchup, you may not want to do it. But if the love of your life says that, you may not only pass the ketchup, but pass the mustard as well. I don't know. It's a simple analogy, but it is one that works for us. If we find the things to do that we enjoy, we are going to be successful at those because we're going to be more willing to put in the work, put in the extra effort, and that's going to help us overcome the competition because they may not like it as much as we do or may not like the combination of work in the way we do. So don't be afraid to a little bit get out of your comfort zone, but in a way to find a more comfortable position. Take a look at some of the things that are out there, and some you may have zero experience with. But if you have an idea that maybe this is something I would enjoy, then I would urge you to give that a shot. Check it out. And of course, as always, if you don't like it, you can stop. It's not like you have to commit your life down one of these paths. Actually, more importantly, this is why we do this, is we can go down these paths for a bit. We can explore these different technologies and environments and roles and positions and different aspects of the software development life cycle. All these things, we can explore them and find where our niche is. What is it that we enjoy? What is it that we want to do? What makes us happy? Because a year from now, if you found things that made you happy, you're overall going to be a happier person. I know that seems very obvious. Versus if you just did stuff to earn an extra buck or impress somebody down the street, something like that, then it's not the same. Maybe you accomplished that goal, whatever that goal happened to be, earning more money or whatever it is, but accomplishing a goal is not the same as finding what makes you happy. There's a big difference between whatever it is. Let's say you have a favorite food, whatever it happened. Let's say you love a good steak. Well, there's a big difference between sitting down and having a good steak versus having a normal meal. The normal meal would accomplish the goal of giving you food and energy and vitamins and all the things you need to exist, whereas steak, you're going to do it and you're going to be happy. Maybe even sometimes having a good balanced meal, which does all those good things for a health sense, sometimes you would be actually happier maybe having a bowl of ice cream or something like that. The goal could be very different from happiness. Again, we've talked about this, but this is a good time of the year to really let it sink in. I'm going with a lighter load of material and content that we're producing this month. I think it's an important thing for you to do as well. As much as we push, and we've talked about balance and getting some time to recharge and things like that, but I think it's important that we keep sight of our why. Why is it we're doing this? And also our what, I guess, as far as what is it that makes us happy? What can we do that is more enjoyable or less like work? I would expect that most of us, if not all of us, can find things to do that would be work to some people but are not at all work for us. I've said before, the best thing you can do is find the job that you get paid to do that you would do for free. If you're in your free time and you find yourself doing something that could generate an income, then obviously if somebody paid you to do that, that's the best thing. Now if your only happiness is laying on a couch, that's probably not going to happen. But even things, proving my mother wrong, years ago she said, oh, nobody's ever going to pay you to play video games. Well, there are people that are paid to play video games that are video game testers and even some of the implementing people. If you love to do it, there is likely a way you can earn money with it, if nothing else, producing content around it via maybe a blog or a podcast yourself or something like that. So let's take this time not only to put together resolutions and things like New Year's resolutions and things like that that normally occur in this time of year that are motivators or us saying, okay, this year is going to be different. Think about what it is that makes you happy. So when you say this year it's going to be different, make that difference. Things that are more enjoyable to you. Make as part of your mission, I guess, in the year ahead, looking at things that you do that you don't enjoy and finding ways to maybe shift so that you can do more things that you do enjoy. Ideally, you get to the end of the next year and your balance in life of things that you don't enjoy that you have to do versus things that you do enjoy that you do or even that you have to do that the joyous side wins out, that the happiness side wins out over the things that are drudgery. If you're early in your career, this may be a very natural progression because we do, quote, grunt work and things that maybe nobody likes to do or very few people do early on and we sort of put in our time and then we're allowed to do more of the things that maybe are what we really want to do. But I think we can continue that path well into our career. It should be easier in the early years because you're getting some experience, you're getting things under your belt, you're learning what you like and what you don't like, you're proving to others what you are good or not as good at and thus naturally drifting into certain roles and responsibilities. But I think we need to keep this in mind as we get into that fifth or tenth or twentieth year or fiftieth year of our career as well is what are we doing? What do we want to accomplish? What makes us happy? And we do have different seasons in life. There's that early time when you're young and single and you've got probably one set of priorities and then maybe you're dating or married and just a married couple without kids and then that's a different thing. But then if you have kids, that's different. Then of course when your kids are young, it's different from when they're in middle school and into school age, which is different when they get to college and then when you get to be an empty nester or when you're early in your career and you're doing a lot of grunt work versus maybe later you're doing a lot of management and dealing with a lot of HR and travel and all that kind of stuff. Everybody goes through seasons of life. Maybe a few years per season, maybe a decade or two for a season. But as you drift in and out of these seasons, that also may mean that your why and your what would change as well. Maybe you spent 10 years doing something you really love but you essentially mastered it and then it's sort of boring and so it's ready to move on. I've seen a lot of kids that do that that are phenomenal at something and then they do it all the time when they're young because they're phenomenal at it and everybody push them, youth sports in particular. Then they get into teenage years and they lose interest completely. Maybe they were set in the world of fire. They were winning championships and MVP trophies and all that kind of stuff. They get into high school and they've got other things that they want to do. Maybe they look at it and say, I'm not going to do this for the rest of my life. They may go from 100% focused on something to essentially zero. They may come back later on and like it but the important thing here is that our tastes, our desires, our goals change. It doesn't hurt to regularly, maybe annually, step back, take a look at where we're at, and ask yourself, am I happy? If not, what are some things I can do that may make me more happy or less miserable, depending on where you're at on that scale? The challenge of the week and really the month this time around is plan out a roadmap for happiness for yourself. Think about what you do. This is probably going to be multiple sessions of doing this. Think about what it is you do, what is it you like, and what do you dislike? Then consider some ways to shift so that you can do more things you like and less things you dislike. It may require certification or training or maybe going and getting a degree or something like that. These could be very substantial big steps to get to the things that make you happy. But if you get there, if you put that work in and you get there, then at the end of the day you're happy and that is very valuable. In this holiday season of cheer and all that kind of stuff, spend a little time thinking about how can you make your days, weeks, and years ahead more cheerful? That being said, we'll wrap this one up. So go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week. Enjoy your holiday season and we will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to Building Better Developers, the Developer North podcast. For more episodes like this one, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, and other podcast venues or visit our site at developer.com. Just a step forward a day is still progress. So let's keep moving forward together. One more thing before you go. Develop a North podcast and site are a labor of love. We enjoy whatever we do trying to help developers become better. But if you've gotten some value out of this and you'd like to help us, be great if you to go out to developer.com slash donate and donate whatever feels good for you. If you get a lot of value, a lot. If you don't get a lot of value, even a little would be awesome. In any case, we will thank you and maybe I'll make you feel just a little bit warmer as well. Now you can go back and have yourself a great day.