Are you operating on autopilot?

There are 2 common traps people fall into when choosing a career.

I call them Default Mode 1 and Default Mode 2.

Default modes are decision-making patterns that occur when you don’t use conscious and deliberate thought to weigh out your options.

It’s basically autopilot mode.

(Or “System 1” as Daniel Kahneman would have it)

Default Mode 1: You do the exact same thing as your parents, OR exactly what they want you to do.

This is the lawyer's son who becomes, well, a lawyer.

Or the immigrant’s daughter who is pushed to become a doctor.

This story has been told countless times. It recently happened within my family. One of my brothers decided to study pharmacy – just like my parents and their parents did.

Am I saying this is wrong?

Not necessarily. I actually believe that David (my brother) will be very happy with this decision.

But where it gets dangerous is if you haven’t considered alternatives.

When you merely adopt your environment’s (mostly your parents’) beliefs and don’t pause for even a SECOND to open yourself to the realm of possibilities outside of this dogma.

This is why there are so many desperate and miserable workers within our society. The 9-5 slaves … stuck in a job they never wanted in the first place.

The other default mode can be equally tragic.

Default Mode 2: You do the polar opposite of what your parents want you to do.

I fell into this trap myself.

After graduating from high school and earning some of the best grades in my year … my parents (and everyone else) expected me to go to university and study something “safe”.

But I didn’t want to.

I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I wanted to build a $100M+ empire. I wanted to prove all these suckers who didn’t believe in me wrong. 

This is an act of rebellion.

But here’s the catch: 

It wasn’t a conscious choice … it was equally mindless and destructive as Default Mode 1.

Acting on Default Mode 2 can have the same negative consequences of choosing a career that you never even wanted to begin with…

…as was the case for me.

Truthfully, I don’t want a $100M business. I NEVER wanted it. But my unconscious need to “prove my haters wrong” and be respected by others pushed me to chase this shallow desire nonetheless.

As always in life…

The answer lies
somewhere in the middle.

If you take a moment to pause and reflect on what you truly want out of your career … you’ll probably find that neither path would be truly fulfilling for you.

When I did this, I realized that I DID want to go to university. And that’s what I did. So far … it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in YEARS. My life feels so much fuller, happier, and more meaningful.

But it goes against the dogma I believed in: “university is a scam!” It took a lot (like … A LOT) of work to realize this wasn’t my own belief … I was simply acting on Default Mode, blindly defying everything my environment expected of me.

I don’t know where you are.

You might be neck-deep in a career already … or you might be standing at the crossroads.

But no matter where you are career-wise, I encourage you to take a moment (or perhaps a few more) to be brutally honest with yourself.

Is your current path or the path you’re considering something you TRULY want? Or are you just acting based on other people’s dogma?

Asking this question has prevented a lot of suffering in my life.

It might do the same for you.

As always, feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts. I’m always happy to hear from you.

Thank you, and until next time,

Tim <3