Knowing a Destination

If you don't have a goal, how do you know when you arrived?

I was speaking with Fear Mor yesterday morning about some of my job musings, about the industry I'm working in, and what I am thinking about careers. As the discussion arose, I got to talking about the fact that in other companies I've worked, we tended to work on products that were trying to meet a specific and real need. That was somewhat motivating, I realized: it was a sense of doing good and working for a greater cause.

Then it hit me (these things always seem to, right on the old noggin) that I don't know that I've ever consciously thought of doing this at a company, that I have had the presence of mind to say "Hey, that's something important to me." As I thought and pondered over the subject more, I realized that my work goals heretofore has been pretty much "Money". Trust me - it's important, but not enough to carry you through a career.

It was at that point that the image which I have used before hit me: an actor starting their career. Yes, they originally start out in "B" movies or in small playhouses, but the ones that want to succeed, they don't stay there. They use that experience, train to become better, and move on.

But the other side of that coin is that they know where they are headed. I'm not sure how they do this, but at some level in their brains they have a vision of what they want to do and where they want to be. Jim Carrey, it is said, wrote out a slip of paper as a $1,000,000 check to himself, and often looked at it to remind him of his goals.

So what do I have in my mind of where I want to be? If I want to stay in this industry (and there are perfectly good reasons for doing so), what is the type of place I want to work at? What is it I want to be doing?

If I can see those, then I can see where I am and what I need to do to get to the next level.