Your Career Is A Boat

Your Career Is A Boat…but what kind of boat is up to you.

Before you answer, don’t assume bigger is always better. Let’s work through the analogy for a second.

Boats are meant for travel and transportation. They’re also a means of leisure.

Your boat might be a motorboat or Zodiac, one that’s practical and is meant to get you from point A to B. Or it might be a massive cruise ship that will take you places slowly but you’re going to have fun on the way. You might be on a canoe, where moving anywhere takes a lot of work.

Or perhaps you’re on a raft, floating in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes life can feel that way. None of us are really sure where point B is. We’re just headed off into a direction. Hopefully towards greatness. Retirement. Success. Fame. Notoriety. Awards. Financial stability. …but not always.

As with anything, it helps to have a destination in mind and to aim yourself towards that place. At certain point in our career, we may have to adjust our rudder and alter the direction. We may have been going off-course and it takes a bad job, a bad boss, burnout, or something big like company failure or getting fired to make those moves. But they’re usually not about stopping. Or turning around to go back where you started.

Most people, when you think about it, simply use the momentum they have to slightly alter the course of their career. Small boats are really good at turning. But they’re not great at speed or dealing with storms. Big ships are powerful but take a long time to turn. Speed boats get where they’re going but eat up a lot of fuel and need more time to change direction.

Every once in a while, your boat needs to be brought into the mechanic and fixed up. Or upgraded. This can feel frustrating because you see all these other ships and boats on the water and here you are stuck.

You might not know what’s wrong with your boat, but with some time and some testing, the answer shows itself. And ultimately, where you’re going is up to you. How you deal with the waves and the calm is in your hands. Just try not to capsize. You’re the captain of your own ship. Aye, aye.

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Caveday is a company aimed at improving your relationship to work. We write regular posts on Medium and send out monthly newsletters with productivity tips, life hacks, and recommendations. Sign up for the mailing list here.

Jake Kahana is a cofounder of Caveday. Sign up for his personal emails, called “The Email Refrigerator” here.