Talent, Passion & Organisation

I attended a talk by the Nurse Manager (NM in short) in my current work place along with a few of my colleagues. It wasn't a big scale thing, just the few of us in 1 of the empty rooms in the clinic. This talk was about your goals & steps to reach them.

In life, you have what you desire, things you do that contributes to your desire & things you do that has no effects on your desire. There can be multiple desires. She cited an example that say your goal in life is to be a mother & a NM. Things you do that contributes to it are like getting married (mother goal) good attendance, punctuality, efficiency etc (NM goal). Things that has no effects are like trying to decide whether to eat chicken rice or duck noodles.

To achieve your career desire, you need to have 3 things. Talent, passion & organisation. 1 cannot be without the other. If you have no talent in your selected work field, no amount of passion will get you anywhere. Say you have talent but you have no passion for your work. Work is just a daily routine for you. You won't get very far either. Congratulations if you have both talent & passion. But without a job (organisation), how are you going to shine?

To achieve your career goal, the 4 steps are inevitable.

Step 1:

You're the newbie. You work under supervision & you need a lot of guidance. This is the step that you should clarify things about your work as often as you can.

Step 2:

You're competent. You're able to do the work delegated to you with minimal supervision. You can be a preceptor to the newbies. You answer the questions they have & refer them to a higher authority when needed. You should continue to clarify any doubts you have.

Step 3:

You're in charge of a department. You delegate work to your subordinates & answer any doubts that they have. You seek to improve the department & give feedback to your subordinates.

Step 4:

You're in charge of the organisation. Decisions you make are based on whether they're beneficial to the organisation. You give feedback to the various departments.

It got me thinking even as my NM talked about talent & passion. I kept asking myself, "Where is my talent & where is my passion?". I thought about how I love to read & write. I have the passion but no talent. Then I thought about the cross stitch I like to do. Again, I have passion but my talent is limited to cross stitch.

The most impt 1 came to my mind. I'm in the nursing line. Naturally, that's where my talent lies. Afterall, I've studied for it. I've got the passion for it but not in humans. So is it a good idea if I work as a vet's nurse? This job is hard to find coz you hardly see them advertise in the papers. It's all through word of mouth. It would also mean a great paycut coz I seriously doubt that they're paid well.

There is another option, though close to impossible to achieve. Be a vet. 1st, you must have the dough. Becoz, this course of study isn't available in S'pore & you need to study many years (should be 7 yrs) for it in a foreign country. 2nd, I'm 24 this yr. I'll be 31 yrs old when I'm done & that's if I have the money now. If I have the money 5 yrs later? I'll be 36 yrs old & a junior vet. Although you'll say that 31 isn't a very old age, but I had hoped that I'll be a young mom & complete my family early, preferably before 30.

You shouldn't have children in the course of your study coz it's distracting. You need to take leave from your studies to deliver & then you'll be too busy taking care of your baby. If you have children before starting on the course, does that mean that you have to bring your children overseas? You can barely support yourself so what makes you think you can support your children for 7 yrs? I guess dreams are meant for the rich. Jewel says it well in her song, "Yes You Can".

There's a price on everything, it's not cheap to buy your dreams!