“It is shameful not to walk but to be carried, and suddenly dazed in the midst of worldly confusion to ask: ‘How did I come to this point?’” That’s what the Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote in a letter to his good friend Lucilius.
Think about it. Where are you in life? And what led you to this point? Most of us don’t have a good answer. I’ve learned to ask myself that question all the time:“How did I come to this point?” The first time I asked myself this, it was like a whole new world opened up to me.
What I found out when I really focused on this question was that many things in my life were an accident. I just stumbled into situations. And I’m not alone: One of the most common answers you get when you ask people “How did you get into this work?” is, “I don’t know. I guess it just happened naturally.”
I realized that it was a total accident that I got into that industry — and that caused inner frustration. But at the same time, I also didn’t know what I really wanted to do. So many of us are in that weird space. We don’t enjoy our work, but we don’t know what else we want to pursue.
Through reasoning and reflecting, I realized I needed to make a change. I always enjoyed learning and teaching, but I never wanted to pursue the traditional path. As Seneca said, “From reason you will learn what to attempt and how; you will not do things by accident.” I knew I wanted to do things on my own way instead of working for a school or university.
So I started teaching online classes for motivated professionals, which is something I’m very passionate about. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on updating my writing class, which opens every January. It’s hard work and requires a lot of energy.
But it also gives me pleasure to create new material. And even more pleasure when my students actually use the material to improve their lives and careers. The other day, one of my students said she started “making sales almost everyday while I sleep.” That’s amazing.
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