Author: Tony Beck
Date: 2008-11-04 15:56
One of the things I’ve noted about talented people is that most have talents in many areas. You can see that just from the responses here. Part of life is making decisions, and most of those decisions involve tradeoffs. You simply can’t do everything you have a talent for, especially at the level you know you could achieve. Usually, those talents that have the best returns (family, money, lifestyle, mobility, you name it) aren’t necessarily the ones you enjoy the most. Therefore, the choices you make aren’t the one you wish you could have made, and it can be very hard to put away the what-ifs and if-onlys. Still, as long as you keep your talents in mind when choosing, your first choice isn’t the only one that can lead to fulfillment. As you are discovering, that choice doesn’t preclude developing and enjoying your other abilities too.
Most of us have been through painful career decisions. It’s a part of life. As a teenager I wanted more than anything to be a professional pilot. I worked at the airport starting at age 13 and got a pilot’s license about the same time as a driver’s license. Events conspired to close that door. After a couple side trips, I went into engineering, which I enjoy very much, but not as much as flying. That too involved several weighty decisions. For instance, do I take the “perfect job”, or live where my family is happiest.
In the meantime, music has always been a part of my life. I played clarinet in high school and in college, and made a few regional bands. I was far from pro material, but did well enough to cover the humanities requirements and keep my GPA up. For a long time after graduation, my playing was limited to the stereo. When my daughter started in her school band, her teacher recruited me into the local community band. After a layoff of about 20 years, it was great to be playing again. That eventually led to a gig with a local German Band every October.
There was an interesting study done a few years ago which concluded that most people don’t choose a career, they more or less fall into one through circumstance. Given the huge number of opportunities, that’s understandable. In fact, it shows in the posts here. Ultimately, you get to discover those opportunities and make the choices. The secret is to not be a passenger on this trip. Keep driving, wherever the forks and turns in the road lead.
Like the old Eagles song concludes; “It really wasn’t wasted time.”
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