Greener Grass, Or Better Grass?

I thought more about the article from my last post.

One of the messages that might be drawn from it is that chasing a new field because the grass seems greener could be a big disappointment. That happiness (with a job, or for that matter, with relationships or other aspects of life) is not a matter of finding an environment that makes you happy. You might spend your whole life chasing a place that makes you happy, but the search is fruitless because happiness is mostly our choice, an internal condition rather than an external one. If you can't find a way to be happy where you are, the odds are above average that you won't find happiness just because you change location.

At the same time, there's a difference between potential paths to happiness if one is muddy, rocky and uphill while the other is smooth. The article talks about the satisfaction that comes from mastering a job and providing value. If I tried to play in the NBA, my natural ability would make mastery a long shot. The dream of being a successful player in that business is hazy enough that it's not worth making it a career choice and putting in the long hours that mastery requires.

The path to becoming a teacher is smooth for me. The feedback from students is that I'm naturally good at it. Creative approaches come easily to me, I have patience and am good at explaining things. When I'm working with a difficult math concept or troubled student, the struggle to succeed is far less taxing than combing through insurance law. The challenge is more exciting, more meaningful, and frankly better dinner conversation than learning how to correct life insurance death benefits when the age has been misstated.

The odds of my becoming an excellent actuary are somewhere between becoming an excellent NBA player and becoming an excellent teacher... and I want to be excellent at what I do.

So I'd agree that a "love at first sight" type approach to finding a passionate career could ultimately result in emptiness. Planner that I am, I'm doing a long courtship before making a career change. Excellence that results from hard work is success; mediocrity that results from hard work is the poorer choice. If several years of teaching prove to be more rewarding than decades of insurance work, that's the pasture I ought to be standing in.