Lobbyist? Environmentalist? Priest? Charity fundraiser? Self employment? Arts administrator? Dance therapist? Trapeze artist?
Not many people choose any of these. And the ones who choose are definitely made for it.
In reality, an Alternative career is a personal matter, and what might be alternative for one and might appear mainstream to someone else. Would you see a career as a trapeze artist as an ‘alternative’ choice if you came from a family of circus performers? Alternative is as much a matter of perception and definition as anything else. Generally, when we refer to ‘alternative careers’, we’re looking at this in a variety of ways, in particular – type of work, working styles, jobs and employers which might be out of the ordinary.
Off the top of our head, what comes to mind when someone says ‘career’? Accountancy, legal work, management consultancy, research, Medicine — or something else? All of these are perfectly good careers and might be just what one wants to do in the future. All these might fetch huge incomes and one can build colossal chalets with them or become the richest person on the Earth and buy whatever he wants. But what matters is, Are you happy with it? Was it your choice to become what your today? Is there anything that you always wanted to do? Does your achievement have anything to do with your Heart? We have to ask these questions to ourselves before anybody tells us what to do for our future or what is our strength.
It is very important that you are completely honest with yourself. Some people are drawn to what they see as an alternative career by a desire to be seen to be doing something different, a few because in their hearts they fear failure if they follow a conventional path. To be fair, most are motivated by the desire to ‘give something back’, to ‘make a difference’ or ‘to do something worthwhile’. This is to be applauded — but it isn’t the answer. Not in itself. If your motivations fall into this category, ask yourself: what/whom do I want to help? how do I want to be of help? So first of all, uncover your motivation and then look at how you might best realise it.
Tom Brokaw, an American TV Journalist once said, “You are Educated. Your certification is in your degree. you may think of it as the ticket to good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of your ticket to change the world”
Greatness doesn’t come with what you earn. It doesn’t matter to you, yourself, when you are not happy and just want to be in a race to catch the long line of luxury life. There are so many things which guides us to the right path. It might be a book called Monk who sold his Ferrari or it might be a small kid who’s playing with the sand. The only thing we have to discover is the true desire inside us and must be determined to follow our Heart.
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