{"id":2407,"date":"2019-04-25T12:29:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/career-choices-and-motivation-why-am-i-here-and-not-elsewhere\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T10:44:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T10:44:04","slug":"career-choices-and-motivation-why-am-i-here-and-not-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/career-choices-and-motivation-why-am-i-here-and-not-elsewhere","title":{"rendered":"Career choices and motivation: Why am I here and not elsewhere?"},"content":{"rendered":"

2017 was a big year!\u00a0Our group had the opportunity to move from Utah to Emory, and we were also fortunate to be able to start a number of new projects, including adding a branch of education research.\u00a0Given the title of this blog post, you might be tempted to think I\u2019m going to discuss why we moved, but that\u2019s not what this is about.\u00a0That topic could in fact be addressed with a post titled \u201cwhy you shouldn\u2019t get your news from chemistry blogs.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What I really want to talk about involves a much bigger version of the question \u201cwhy am I here and not elsewhere?\u201d\u00a0I want to talk about the process of thinking through why I\u2019m in this career and not a different one.\u00a0I\u2019ll admit that this was in part precipitated by our move, as making such a large decision involves some deep thinking about what you really value and what you want from your career. But, this also came about as our group dove into the topic of motivation for our group retreat last summer.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My main hobbies are all athletic, so I was intrigued by an article I saw last year written by a personal trainer.\u00a0They described the first conversation they have with potential clients who are thinking of signing up for coaching, and how they ask the seemingly simple question of \u201cwhy do you want to do this?\u201d\u00a0The author described how nearly all people answer in one of two categories: (1) I want to lose weight\/feel more attractive, or (2) I want to be healthier.\u00a0We might be tempted to consider answer 1 to be incorrect and answer 2 to be correct.\u00a0But, that\u2019s not the case \u2013 turns out neither is a good answer, as the real reason is usually much more specific, and finding that real answer is the key to their client finding the motivation to get out of bed before dawn and do hard workouts week after week.\u00a0The author then went on to describe how they probe with questions until they get to that real answer, which is often along the lines of – \u201cMy dad had a heart attack at age 42 and I\u2019m about to turn 40.\u00a0I don\u2019t want my kids to go through the pain and worry that I did,\u201d or \u201cI know that the reason I\u2019m still single is because I don\u2019t have enough confidence to meet new people.\u00a0If I start working out, that will give me the confidence I need.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We can apply this very same process to asking ourselves why we\u2019ve chosen the career that we did, and similarly, can then use this answer to maintain our motivation through the tough days.\u00a0The answer to this question can also be very powerful in guiding future career choices \u2013 once you know what you really love about your current job, you can look at the options and ask, \u201cwill this new opportunity give me more or less of that?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, how do you find this answer?\u00a0Similar to the personal coaching example, you have to keep asking questions. If you ask me why I love what I do, my gut reaction is to say \u201cbecause I love science.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s not incorrect, but it\u2019s the equivalent of saying \u201cI want to exercise to be healthier.\u201d\u00a0There are tons of jobs that involve science, and just \u201cloving science\u201d probably won\u2019t get me out of bed in the morning and motivate me to work at my top capacity.\u00a0When I pushed further, I came up with \u201cI love the autonomy and creativity of academic research.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s a bit better, but still isn\u2019t specific enough to explain the career choices I\u2019ve made (and why I\u2019m spending an hour writing a blog post instead of working on a grant application!).\u00a0Pushed further, I will say \u201cI thrive on building relationships.\u201d\u00a0This is yet another step closer, as it gets to a specific part of my job that really drives me, but again, there are a lot of jobs that involve science, independent research, and building relationships.\u00a0My final answer (for now) is \u201cI love working with an ever-evolving group of energetic, driven, and creative students and postdocs, getting to see them grow their knowledge and independence during their time in our group, and having the privilege of being a part of their life as they move on and navigate their own future career.\u201d Now that is getting somewhere!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I have this answer, what do I do with it?\u00a0Going back again to the personal coaching example, there are days when motivation is high and others when it is low.\u00a0Knowing why you love your job is something you can leverage powerfully to get you through those tougher days or less pleasant tasks. For example, one of the things that needed to be done for our move was reviewing quotes for small pieces of lab equipment.\u00a0As enthralling as it is to stare at two pdfs, each having a hundred line items, and try to figure out which vendor will give us a better deal on refrigerators, pipettors, heating blocks, etc., this is just not fun for me.\u00a0But, knowing what motivates me, I could frame it as, \u201cI need to get this done because the people on our research team are counting on me to get our orders in on time and to choose options that will best suit our research.\u201d\u00a0It really helped!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This technique can also apply to much bigger decisions.\u00a0If you are a grad student or postdoc thinking about your future career, ask yourself what you love about your current job and what you don\u2019t love.\u00a0Dive deep to find the question of what really motivates you.\u00a0Enlist a close friend or mentor to push you until you find a good answer.\u00a0If people know you well, then when you do hit that answer, they\u2019ll say \u201cyup, that totally makes sense.\u201d\u00a0Then, as you survey the landscape of career options before you, think about the extent to which each one will provide you with opportunities that tap into the source of your motivation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An important caveat in all of this is that there\u2019re many ways to be very successful in a given career.\u00a0I can almost guarantee that my answer to why I love my job is not the most common one you would get from faculty.\u00a0I would guess it\u2019s more common for faculty to arrive at something along the lines of \u201cI love the rush of sifting through data to learn something new about how the world works, and realizing that we were the first people to ever have that knowledge.\u201d\u00a0That’s a great reason to go into academia! Having a different motivational structure means that you might tackle a job in slightly different ways, but doesn\u2019t necessarily determine your success in a given career.\u00a0Rather, knowing your real source of motivation can guide you to the place where you\u2019re most likely to find fulfillment, and will give you the best shot at success by helping you to give your best on both fun and not fun tasks, and to drive hard through all of the ups and downs.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Jennifer M. Heemstra (@jenheemstra<\/a>) is an\u00a0Associate Professor of Chemistry at\u00a0Emory University.\u00a0This story was published on January 23, 2018, on Jennifer’s\u00a0blog,\u00a0\u2018<\/i>Things that change the way I think<\/i><\/a>\u2019<\/i><\/span><\/span>\u00a0(available\u00a0<\/i>here<\/i><\/a>) and has been republished here with her permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2017 was a big year!\u00a0Our group had the opportunity to move from Utah to Emory, and we were also fortunate to be able to start a number of new projects, including adding a branch of education research.\u00a0Given the title of this blog post, you might be tempted to think I\u2019m going to discuss why we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1097,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2668,2454],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-motivational-stories","tag-researcher-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCareer choices and motivation: Why am I here and not elsewhere?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I started writing this story because I wanted to think about why I\u2019m in this career and not a different one. 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