A Metaphysical Conundrum: Advice On Not Following Advice

 My co-worker and I were talking the other day about the amount of crap on the internet. I have 215 different subscriptions in my Google reader... and quite a few are gen-y blogs, social media blogs, and just people whom I find interesting. 215! That's craziness! And I can't tell you the amount of advice out there that is wishy-washy bs.* How to advance your career in 5 simple steps. How smiling saved my life. Why you should talk back to your boss and how to do it. etc. etc. etc. Maybe it sounds overly simplified, but can't we all just live and learn? How many people are actually thinking of a certain blog post when they approach their boss for a raise, decide to spend more time with their kids, or decide to handle a conflict maturely? Seriously. I think I want to know the answer.

I am all for the consistent determination to better oneself each and every day. In fact, at the risk of sounding trite, I kind of consider it a personal mantra. I critique myself more than anyone else ever could, but I enjoy helping people (can't wait to read New Day Revolution) and strive to be the best version of myself. I don't need a top 5 list of how to follow my dreams. (Most) Everyone wants to work their dream job, live in their dream house with their dream spouse - and we are all striving one day at a time to get there. Life happens one breath at a time.

Change is hard. It is inconvenient, messy, and difficult. But pick yourself up by your bootstraps and make your life what you want it to be. After all, you are the only person you have to live with your whole life - why wouldn't you want to become who you want to be? My advice to people who are seeking change and find it inconvenient: suck it up and do it anyway, or deal with it and stay the same. Those are your only two options. Only, in the latter scenario, you're not allowed to complain anymore about not changing :) Is that too blunt?

So, with this is mind, I decided to unsubscribe from multiple feeds today - some of which I have been following and even enjoying for some time. Instead of reading other people's advice on how to get my dream job or how to make my current job better... I am going to do it. Learn by doing. A hands on approach.

Enter Eva from iOrgPsych. I stumbled upon her blog today through a guest post for the series on Inconvenient Change on Life Without Pants. Not only was her post almost verbatim what I have been thinking lately, but after checking out her site I had an epiphany. In essence, she is who I want to be in a few years. I have had an affinity for I/O psychology since a class I took in senior year of high school. In fact, I chose my two majors, my minor, and my honors thesis topic on this basis. But somewhere in the craziness of a major breakup, moving to a city where I didn't know anyone, and being 100% self-sufficient (ie cut off from the parentals), I lost this essential piece of the equation. Additionally, I have a newfound love of social media. She combines my loves two into one awesome blog.

Then, I had a meeting at Deloitte for my current job (which, by the way I do enjoy and have learned a lot from) and it reinforced my paradigm shift. Big buildings, swanky offices, corporate structure, beautiful views, coffee machines and fruit pastries, cnn on flat screen tvs all over the office. They had created an ethereal workplace. I took a deep breath and felt like Dorothy returning home to Kansas. That is where I belong. Black pencil skirts in the corner with laptops sipping on Starbucks (although I do prefer to support local coffeehouses). Yes, yes, this is what people perceive as corporate America at its worst - which seems to positively correlate negatively (yes, that's correct) with the economic decline. But, when certain psychological principles are added to the batter, the corporate cake can be a positive, productive, innovative, and rewarding place. I want to somehow interweave my love of I/O Psych, communication, big business, and social media. I want to help people enjoy their jobs more and get more out of the workplace. It is what I have always wanted to do - big business and corporate America, but with an altruistic, humanitarian twist. That, and I am infatuated with finding out why people behave the way that they do.

Heeding my own advice I plan to pursue this path from now on. I'm going to learn whatever I can from my work now and take all of my experiences with me, but ultimately I think that this is what I want to do. I am going to read all that I can and talk to whomever I can. Change is inconvenient - but it is a constant, necessary part of taking what you want out of life.

*I do want to say that there are plenty of sites out there that do offer valuable advice on how to positively change your life, and I think that they are beneficial as long as a person doesn't just sit idly and read them but actually takes the advice :)