Fulfilling Varied Interests
“But I like a lot of things…” I hear this quite often with clients and “Cynthia” called today and told me a familiar story of being dissatisfied at work. She had what I call “The Creative Curse.” (see my articles section where I write more on this). But actually, having varied interests, can be a blessing too.
There are lots of positions that allow one to use their creative input and have a variety of role assignments.
Cynthia’s main issue was trying to use skills she’d obtained along the way, but really weren’t what she enjoyed doing. Her work role was somewhat sedentary and she was a more active person. She also wasn’t giving enough feedback of her ideas and had limited interaction with others. Her position offered her a certain amount of professional credibility and a reasonable salary, but didn’t address her high need for creativity.
She had options she wasn’t aware of at work, including asking her supervisor for more creative challenges and creating work team projects or asking to be part of existing ones. At home she could engage in more of her hobbies and interests so that she wasn’t dependant on her job to completely satisfy her need for creativity and variety.
Be sure you’re not challenged with attention deficit disorder (read “Driven to Distraction” to see if the symptoms there sound like you or, if you think you have ADD, seek a professional who can diagnosis this and perhaps a coach who specializes in this).If you don’t have ADD, you may simply be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and have not taken advantage of all your options for change…including using a career coach to find what you really love most and integrating that into your life.
How do you satisfy your varied creative interests at work?
Tags: ADD, creative work interests, prioritzing, varied interests
May 16th, 2007 at 10:12 am
This is true for me. I’m not ADD, I’m pretty sure. I do know I like variety though and my corporate job can get dull. I think the thing that has worked best for me is finding a job where I have a good relationship with my boss and I can ask more more varied assignments or give my input in a fairly regular feedback process. He even asks for my ideas informally too. At home, I have several hobbies, but I try not to get too many things going at once…like reading four books at once. Instead I concentrate on being stimulated within the choices I’ve already made. (submitted verbally and typed in by CAW)