Welcome back to our series on careers and why they can be both fun and successful! Last week’s edition of our series on how personal passions can become successful careers was an examination of how being in our chosen field of interest can help us build up a resumé of diverse skills. This time, let’s talk about how being in a job we love can help us think outside the box.
INNOVATIONS ARE EASIER WHEN WE KNOW OUR CRAFT BY HEART.
It can often be boring when we have a skill that we’re really good at. It can seem routine.
Sometimes, this helps us maintain consistency in the results that we’re responsible for at work. We’re so used to using our unique talents that we can use them to perform our tasks efficiently and with quality output. People with such mastery are described as being able to use their talents blindfolded. And that can be a good thing.
Sometimes, this routine will put us in a situation where we can’t solve a problem the way we usually do. There are a number of factors in the issue that makes it resistant to the usual way we do things. It’s an exception to our standard operating procedure, and therefore our regular performance will not be enough to solve it. This, in contrast to the previous point, is a not-so-good thing.
Such situations require alternative approaches. There will definitely be a need to innovate. But for some of us who don’t really love our jobs and have no mastery of our tasks, it will be very difficult to try something new. This is because we don’t even have the foundation required to approach the problem in the conventional way. If we don’t know the normal methods to solve the problem, how can we know which alternatives to try?
Hence, being truly passionate about something not only gives us expertise on it; that also means we have a clear vision of what has already been done. We are genuinely familiar with the solutions that exist, so we can specifically identify the solutions that haven’t been tried. And that’s already half of how to solve unique problems that defy the normal circumstances. All that’s left for us after that is to apply whatever innovation we’ve pinpointed, and learn new things from the outcome.