Think of your career as your primary outlet for creative self-expression. Your career may take the form of an income-generating job you perform or a business you manage, but it doesn’t have to. Your career is your occupation; at a very basic level, it’s simply what you do to occupy your time. Of course if you’re going to live consciously, this choice becomes a rather important one.
Your career has two components: your medium and your message. Most people think of their careers in terms of the medium, which is the specific method you use to express yourself. For example, you could say that I (Steve Pavlina) am a writer, speaker, or blogger, since those represent some of the media outlets I use to express myself. Most job titles are defined in terms of expressive media, including doctors, lawyers, police officers, teachers, pilots, and so on.
The message of your career is at least as important as the medium. Your medium is how you express yourself, but your message is what you express. My message is about consciously growing as a human being, but I can express that same message through different media. I can write about it, speak about it, or even make a movie about it if I wanted to. Someone else could use these same media to express an entirely different message. For example, a doctor’s message could be about healing, compassion, scientific discovery, education, vitality, or a variety of other possibilities. Just because two people share a similar medium doesn’t mean that they share the same message.
Very often people identify themselves with the medium of their careers. This is a huge mistake. Your medium is merely a shell; it cannot define you as a person. You can expect that your career medium will change over time, but your message will be much more stable. Your message is who you are, while your medium is simply how you choose to express yourself.
Years ago, I chose to express myself through the medium of game development. Today I prefer writing and speaking. Many years from now, I may be doing something entirely different, but my underlying message of conscious growth is unlikely to change much. Similarly, your true career path is about your message, not your medium.
In this Career section, you’ll explore career development in great detail, paying attention to both your medium and your message. To have a fulfilling career, you must identify your core message and adopt an appropriate medium for expressing it. Unless you’re already ridiculously passionate about your current situation, there’s a good chance that your medium is a poor match for your message. If you simply fell into your current line of work, you may need to make significant changes to realign yourself with truth, love, and power.
* Source: Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina