by Christine Conte

Created on: April 03, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

Finding Happiness on a Slow Career Path.

Remember the Yuppies from the 1980s? Movers and shakers on the fast track to the good life, they were! They parked their shiny BMW's in the driveways of their huge houses in their exclusive neighborhoods all over America. They were go-go-going places!

Then came the economic recession of the early 1990s. It all came tumbling down. Some Yuppies realized they were literally killing themselves with work-related stress, and others watched helplessly as the bank came to repossess the BMW's and foreclose on the huge houses.

After the collapse of the Yuppie bubble in the early 1990's, a "Simplicity" movement arose, when a lot of those movers and shakers stopped (often forced by circumstances) and took stock of how uncontrollable and crazy their lives had become. Many took their lumps and moved to less glamorous jobs, and many rediscovered old passions and talents that had been buried by their fast-track lives.

Life on the slow career path is rarely glamorous and is often frustrating. Patience is absolutely necessary. Creative careers especially can take years and decades to develop. True, that "big break" might always be right around the corner, but it often takes a while (and a stroke of luck) to walk down the right street to find that corner. Use this time to develop your skills, experience personal growth, build an impressive portfolio, and enjoy life.

The upside to all this frustration is that the slow career path can be extremely rewarding personally, if not economically. Some of the most rewarding jobs are in the fields of elder care, child care, and work with the disabled and mentally challenged. These careers rarely offer advancement opportunities (and burnout is a constant danger) and they rarely pay proportionately to the amount of responsibility and physical effort they require. However, they offer the satisfying sense of having made a difference in someone's life.

The slow career path requires a person to create a realistic lifestyle within his/her means (I know, I know, "Living within our means" has fallen out of favor in our fabulous-but-bankrupt society). Starving artists have long known the need to have the dreaded "day jobs" in order to support their real life's work. If you're lusting after the sport-utility-monstrosity on a hatchback budget, then you need to wake up to reality and rein in your ego. Make do with what you've got and what you can realistically afford.

If you have a manageable lifestyle in which all your human needs (food, shelter, clothing) are paid in full... you enjoy healthy, loving relationships with family and friends... you are healthy and strong... you have hobbies and passions... life is good, and you've found the key to happiness on the slow career path!

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