Preview: Define Success

       “No matter how nonchalant my friends and I appear to be about the future….the question skulks in the darkest recesses of all our minds----will we be successful?” wrote a blogger for Twenty Something in the City, March 2006. The purpose of “Define Success” is to acknowledge this question, bringing it out of the dark, so that it no longer has negative power behind it. Then, you can get on with defining and achieving your own success, not being secretly harassed by some one-success-fits-all bugaboo.
       A Pew Research Center poll, released in January 2007, reported that twenty-somethings’ most important work-related concern is money; jobs and careers came in as third in importance. So it seems that, often, what you want to do takes second, and in this case third place to finding whatever employment you can get quickly to pay the bills. Interestingly enough, though, other polls show that after people are meeting their bills, money goes to eighth place in importance, behind such things as sense of accomplishment, happiness in the workplace, respect, and recognition. But, until money is not your immediate need, you can still take steps to find the employment that will get you all you want from your work situation.
       Even given the importance of money, twenty-something bloggers, when talking about their workplace experiences, mention how important it is to “do the work you enjoy.” Well, it is important. It’s also not easy to find the jobs or careers you enjoy. It takes work to find the right work, and the first thing to do is determine what is the job/career you really want.