For your consideration –
“Follow your enthusiasm. It’s something I’ve always believed in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what you enjoy doing.”
– Jim Henson
I want you to recognize the importance of following your passion(s). I want you to understand who you want to be and make your decision(s) to follow your dreams, setting your own expectations based upon what truly motivates you.
As I reflect upon my life, my achievements, my successes, and my failures, my greatest mistake has been that I have always sought out the next challenge, and meeting that challenge would make me happy. Thus, giving me the recognition I longed for. I now recognize that I lost my way.
I wasted so many years in supervisory and management roles that I did not enjoy, only because I believed that they were a mandatory next step along my career path. I then spent seven years in the classroom, believing I had the background knowledge and experience that would guarantee my success in the teaching field. It did not; I was not happy and did not do my students justice.
I truly enjoyed just being an instrumental chemist, working in a lab performing analyses, especially operating gas chromatography/mass spectrometry instrumentation. At one point in my career, I worked as an R&D chemist for Hewlett-Packard’s Analytical Products Division in Avondale, Pennsylvania. It was an opportunity to combine my passion for instrumental chemistry with the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of new product design. It was my dream job. But it was the wrong time in my personal journey. And now, as my perspective has changed, with age, I can acknowledge I would not be where I am today if I had continued down that path. And I am truly blessed to be where I am today.
The lesson is this: know yourself. Constantly practice self-awareness and self-reflection. Ask yourself: “What truly makes me happy?” and “What type of person do I want to be known as?” And, most importantly, follow your dreams.
