I fear that my advice will not be very different from anyone else’s! But perhaps this may give you confidence that it is true!
It is easy to say “You should do what you enjoy“, but I prefer to put it the other way round and say “Enjoy what you do”. In every job there will be moments of excitement, moments of elation, moments of real satisfaction. But in every job there will also be moments of boredom, moments of purely routine ‘stuff’ and moments which you actively dislike; maybe even moments of panic.
The trick is to see everything, even a momentary failure, as a learning experience from which you can enrich your knowledge and skills, and to see everything as an important part of your career development, whether or not you remain in that particular post or way of life. The success, the reward and the happiness comes from seeing everything in this positive way, recognising that it will all make you a better, more skilled, more experienced practitioner of whatever you do.
Life is a continuous and never-ending learning experience and you will never stop learning; you will never know it all. Anyway who tells that they know it all, doesn’t know the most important thing of all, that there is always something new and different round the corner, and you will always be the better, the more knowledgeable and the happier for tackling it.
For the same reason, I would say “always volunteer“. If there is some new, different, or really challenging opportunity offered to you, always grab it with both hands. You may be nervous but it is bound to be a learning experience and you will be the better for it – and the greater the challenge is, the greater the eventual reward will be even if it takes a while to arrive! AND you may well open up a whole new road for yourself.
Above all, do everything wholeheartedly and do the best you can, even if you do not know whether or not you want to remain in that field. People will usually notice that you have done your best, but even if they don’t, YOU will know that you have done your best and that is the most rewarding thing of all.
Jeremy Blackham
Previously, Jeremy had a distinguished naval career during which he commanded the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, was Commandant of the Royal Navy Staff College and, in the Ministry of Defence, Director of Navy Plans. His final post was Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff in the role of Vice Admiral.
