How do you stay motivated in this lousy economy, with your lousy job, your failing webcomic, your dashed dreams? How do you keep going on?
Well at times the answer may be "Caffeine" but one thing I encourage people to do in their troubled careers is to remember a simple truth:
If you survive and prosper, you can share it with others.
If you make it through this recession, if you survive your crazy job, if you get that ideal career with blood, sweat, tears, and a killer portfolio, you learn a lot. What you learn in your ever painful struggles can then be passed on to others. By passing it on to others you make your sufferings mean something to more than you.
Think about what you can tell others when you make it. That exhausting job search, that seemingly endless series of classes to get your degree, all of that you've gone through teach you lessons – hard lessons you can't forget if you try. Why not pass them onto others?
Your career, your troubles in this economy, all of this is a challenge to survive. But if you realize that it's also something where you can help others, where you can truly give it meaning if you think about it, can motivate you. Seeing that you can help others with what you've face gives your painful job issues something important – meaning.
So next time you face that job search site, that interview, that class you're cramming into your life, remember – you can make every moment of pain worth it if you can spare others that suffering.
In those dark moments of this lousy economy and crazy job market, that spark of meaning may be what you need to move you forward.
That may be all you need.
– Steven Savage