You make $65,000 (USD 🤢) in a dead end career doing nothing but showing up sometimes. Guaranteed employment without change in intensity or salary until retirement in 15 years at age 62. You receive 3 weeks paid vacation, reasonably priced medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401k matched at 2.5%, and virtually unlimited sick days as long as you don’t call out too often (>3x month). You are given 6 college credits per semester to use at the local university. You’re currently working on a PhD.
You live comfortably and have 1 year’s salary saved. Zero dependents.
Do you ride it out, or do you seek a career change before it’s too late.
I know, infinite unknown variables, but what would you do regardless?
UPDATE: I’m slightly taken aback by how many of you actually took the time out of your day/evening to reply to my personal crisis. I’ve think I’ve replied to everyone, which, in doing so, made this morning surprisingly sunnier. So thanks for that.
Adding some thing I’ve shared in replies. I’m a homeowner with zero debt aside from a very affordable mortgage. Purchased my car outright new in 2024, had household concerns addressed over past five years (new roof, HVAC systems, sump pump, water heater, shed, remodeled bathrooms), have three degrees, and a lifetime of piss poor fortune.
This is more of where I’m leaning, but then I think I’m wasting my potential, without having any idea where to even exhibit potential.
I’m referred to as a “generalist” at work. I’m told that’s a good thing.
It doesn’t sound like a demanding job, just do whatever you feel exhibits your true potential with all the free time it gives you. If you get good enough that you can make that your career, then it’ll be a much less risky move. As long as the work doesn’t kill your soul and it’s not harmful to society or nature at large, it sounds like a great deal to me.
Your potential doesn’t need to be limited to work. You can exhibit that in a multitude of ways with no connection to a job.
Having a job was my parents only aspiration for me. They thought college was a waste of time, and that I would be better off finding a job in retail, working my way up the ladder into management like my father, and live with self-inflicted misery for the rest of my life.
I’ve been employed since 12 years old. I’d only been without a job for roughly 18 months back in the early 00s when I was furloughed from a customer service role at a bank. I was given a nice retention and severance bonus, so I took that money and started an associates degree. Finished it in under two years, picked up a part-time gig, transferred credits, worked and earned my bachelors.
I equate success to maintaining a job. Just the way I was wired, I suppose. I would much rather find success in something not involving money, but I can’t separate the idea of success from money. Capitalism.
That still doesn’t need to be tied to a 9-5 job. Some advice I’d once heard was to get at least 3 hobbies. One that helps you stay in shape, one that is just pure fun, and one that can earn you some money. Find potential in a hobby that can earn you money.
I’m a generalist myself. The upswing is that you can probably choose a new career and train up pretty quick, faster if you make a relatively lateral move to a field related to your current one, especially if you can highlight transferable skills built at work. The downswing is you’re likely to get bored of any one job eventually.
It’s hard to say exactly what fields are transferrable without knowing the specifics of your current career. You can try to find a line of work that presents diverse stimulating problems and rewards generalist thinking. You can always try to fulfill your potential outside of work, since it sounds like the job isn’t very taxing. Pick up a productive hobby or start volunteering or get politically active or something. Join an organization devoted to making a positive impact and contribute your time and effort. Maybe identify something you do really well and teach other people how to do it. As a generalist I’ve done a bit of all of these things, and they all bring some degree of fulfillment, some sense of effectively implementing my potential.
Thanks! Excellent suggestions on finding one’s potential outside of employment. I need hobbies, friends, activities. I’m in a rut socially. I abandoned all social media around 2020 when the insane publicly identified a corrupt, sociopathic, pedophile and chose to make him a leader. My return to socials happened just this year, and you’re looking at the extent of it now.
Unfortunate events and failed relationships have guided me to this point socially. Nothing ever within my control, just the way things played out. But these instances cost me some serious time and wasted perspective. Example, I was once a family man. Thought that was my calling. Being a father. A husband. Didn’t work out. She discovered she was poly following our daughter’s birth. Infidelity, I try to divorce her, turns out we were never legally married despite having an officiated ceremony, reception, the whole nine. During the divorce process, it was discovered the state had no record of our marriage as the certificate had never been returned. Our officiant had us sign the documents immediately after the ceremony, and that was the last we saw them. So all of the family dynamics that play into a divorce were void. She sold the house, gained custody (VA loves to give custody to the mother, especially if they make more $$$) and moved away with our daughter just far enough to make scheduled visitation a challenge. I believe this was intentional, as she was not keen to me being disapproving of her poly lifestyle. She’s insane.
We’ve been taught that we need to use all our potential but if you don’t gain from it, even spiritually, I truly don’t see the point.
Do what makes you happy as long as others don’t get hurt. For a lot of people, that conveniently happens to involve helping others. If that isn’t yours, then just keep looking until you find it.
You are the only one in control of what you deem “realized potential”.
I can dig this. How do you break that cycle of thinking? That it’s acceptable to not capitalize on your potential. Is this in the vein of “life is what you make it?” I’m not making anything with my life.
But that’s just it. Whether you’re a gamer killing time at home or a monk in a cave at the top of a mountain meditating, or a frontline Red Cross Volunteer or a treacherous villain, ultimately, if you’re not actively hurting others, you are the only standard you have to measure yourself by.
Who’s to say what you’re supposed to make? If you’re supposed to make. We’re all just animals at the end of the day.
You might try looking into Taoism. 365 Tao is how I got started, meant to be read one page a day. It’s what redirected my energy. It teaches that the ultimate state of being should feel effortless and that there is a path within that will comfortably guide you to happiness and it’s all about finding that path for yourself.
The less you use the world as a measuring stick for yourself, the less you will feel like you don’t measure up.
I’ve worked in the arts and I’ve worked in public health.
Yes, you can get a certain satisfaction from helping people, or creating something.
In the end, if you’re looking for true fulfillment, it’s an inside job.
No career is going to guarantee happiness. Look at superstars like Charlie Sheen or Tiger Woods. The both had all the external validation anyone could ask for.
My best advice is to accept that your going to be on this job, and start looking for answers in otehr places.
Have you tried meditation?
I know it sounds corny, but in the end, happiness is a choice not a destination.
Yeah potential and job are often mutually exclusive. Unless you’re like a teacher or something where you’re actually helping people and not just a person making boss more money.
Find something you enjoy that can give back to the community. Help establish something cool, or help foster/TNVR cats or dogs, or find something you could do that is fulfilling and helps you not feel like you’ve done nothing. Enjoy yourself.