Is what you are doing with your career what you should be doing? If so, how do you really know? And if not, what actions can you take to move in the right direction? A few thousand years ago, it turns out Aristotle had quite a lot to say on this topic.
Flashback 100 years: Two Oxford University undergrads stumbled upon a vast archive of blackened papyrus just outside the Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus, near modern Cairo. The papyri were fragile and fragmented, worm-eaten, and so blackened by the passage of time that they were almost entirely illegible. Sitting stacked in nearly 800 boxes at Oxford University, these documents have caused excitement and frustration in equal measure for more than a century.
Recently, however, a team of scientists made a startling discovery. By using a digital camera with a series of ultraviolet and infrared filters, they could highlight the contrasts between text and background in manuscripts that had been previously undecipherable. More than a century after this treasure chest of ancient documents was first located, we are finally beginning to truly open it.
One of the grandest discoveries thus far has been sections of Aristotle’s lost book Invitation to Philosophy. Through translation, one of the seminal voices and intellects in the entire history of civilization has been brought back to life.
An image from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Could this be you? (Photo credit: Washington University Papyri... [+]
So what does Aristotle have to say about leading a career that is uniquely right for you? In fact, he highlights two powerful conclusions.
Deliberate Action Matters. Whatever your direction, do not let your career happen to you. Take the wheel and drive. Even when two outcomes are identical, Aristotle argues, those that result from deliberate action have much greater value than those that occur willy-nilly, without any particular intent on our part.
Imagine two sailors starting out from the same dock. One tacks left and right, riding the wind and playing the tides and current as best he can. The other quickly tires of all that, furls his sail, naps on the deck, and lets the boat drift where it will. Conceivably, under the right conditions, both could end up several hours later at the intended destination. Aristotle would argue that the end point has utterly different meaning for the two sailors because the journeys that got them there are nothing alike.
Aristotle taught that no matter the ultimate destination, deliberate action does matter. If he were teaching today, he might put it, “It’s the journey, stupid.” We have to be the one steering the ship. If we simply let ourselves drift toward happiness or fulfillment or any goal—or if we let others determine the route that will get us there, or what the goal itself will be—we have lost control of our own journey. We can never fully enjoy, or even at a subconscious level, embrace the outcome unless we take action.
Winning is about variation, not conformity. Aristotle also asserted that our actions must not only have intent, they must be personal, with goals and objectives and outcomes defined by you alone. Nearly all of us will eventually discover the wisdom in this statement, but often far to late in life.
It’s no wonder that so many of us feel rut-stuck climbing today's corporate ladder. Only one person can win that game, just as only one person can have the most money or the most twitter followers. Our entire system of reflecting on our own success is based on a pyramid scheme, where more than 99% of us will ultimately not win the game. And even when you do win it, what have you won? A game whose rules were set by someone else in the first place. That’s not winning. It’s succumbing. Winning is trying and failing. Winning is finding your own path forward, striving toward your own definition of success, your own rules of happiness. Winning, in a word, is variance, not conformity.
Are you following Aristotle’s advice in your own career and life? Well, what you are doing now is a matter of record. What you should be doing—what work is right for you, what track will bring you the greatest fulfillment—is utterly personal and singular. A million monkeys at a million word processors couldn’t begin to scratch in print the surface of the possibilities.
What you could be doing is what Aristotle was talking about.
What you could be doing is focusing on life-changing opportunities that offer a significant increase in your happiness.
What you could be doing is making certain you are on the right journey: leveraging your own unique strengths and passions in search of directions that will compel others to join and support you in your quest.
What you could be doing is testing the myriad of possibilities in pursuit of the ultimate combustion that will come when you find the one path that is right for you alone.
The journey is what matters. It’s your chance to reimagine work, reignite potential, and make the leap from good to great. It’s the action that holds real meaning. That’s where the real clarity lies, where careers become callings.
And according to Aristotle, that’s where your future begins.
