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This has happened to me after a 20 year career and successful side business. Instead of fight it, I accept it and look at it as a natural part of growth, not st

This has happened to me after a 20 year career and successful side business. Instead of fight it, I accept it and look at it as a natural part of growth, not stagnation. It opens up the possibility for you to take your job for what it is—a job—and explore new hobbies and interests. If nothing is interesting, take a break from trying and play video games or watch tv for a year. Youre going to bump up against a lot of potential interests, and one might naturally take off. For me, that new interest has been electronic music production. And I don’t follow any predefined path. Instead, I just go in the direction it takes me. For now, that’s been developing 4 bar loops and hoarding gear. Those are the antithesis of a productive producer. But I remember how I got started in software collecting warez and keygens without any real rhyme or reason. That lead to me wanting to know how software was cracked, built, then how businesses and careers were built, learned a lot about leadership as a byproduct of having a career, etc. So, while it might sound cliche, open your mind and follow your heart and don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s ok to relax, breathe, and enjoy the life you’ve carved out for yourself so far.

falcolas 6y ago
Well said. And that's great thing about a hobby - you don't have to be good at it, nor does it have to make you money.
monkeynotes 6y ago
> For me, that new interest has been electronic music production This is exactly what I came to after also losing interest in my job defining who I am. I came to the same conclusion, work is just work. I do it purely for the money and fulfilment in mentoring. The products we make seem entirely meta to the overall human cause. Modern life has little meaning, it's so abstract. You rarely ever get to see any use in the output of your efforts. Creating something for yourself, something real and tangible, is one way of finding something small and finding that satisfaction one misses in the toil of daily life.
robocat 6y ago
> developing 4 bar loops and hoarding gear. Those are the antithesis of a productive producer. Or philosophically, your personal choices on whatever takes your fancy are the reasons for working; they are a higher meaning to life than working to feed and house yourself.
gabereiser 6y ago
>...open your mind and follow your heart... I can't emphasize this enough. Your career shouldn't define you. It should be a byproduct of who you are. Not the defining trait. It's hard to realize this at the beginning when you are trying to climb the ladder but after 20 years you begin to realize: In the end you die, if you didn't live a life you want, it's your fault. Open your heart, get in touch with that inner kid, do hobbies and things that excite you. It's ok to change.
deleted 6y ago
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watermelon59 6y ago
> Instead of fight it, I accept it and look at it as a natural part of growth, not stagnation. It opens up the possibility for you to take your job for what it is—a job—and explore new hobbies and interests. I know what you mean there, and I've gotten there a few years ago, but I'm still not entirely satisfied with my overall situation. What I find is that as I get older and progress in my career, new "challenges" are things I never signed up for, and have no interest in. I was rather satisfied with things as a junior and then mid level engineer. I was assigned tasks/projects, got them done, called it a day. The paycheck was already pretty good. I wasn't particularly interested in a promotion to senior, given how stressed out senior engineers seem to be. I had (and still have) no interest in taking on leadership roles, much less management. I already get anxious enough about my own responsibilities, so no, thanks, I don't want to be responsible for other peoples' actions as well. It's all moot though. Despite having made the above clear to my managers, they promoted me to senior. And now whenever I try to retreat into doing individual, technical work, they throw the "that's not work suitable for your level" card at me. I'm being coerced into a leadership role to build an entirely new service, despite 1. having never built a service from the ground up, 2. having never been on a team that did it (thus being exposed to the decisions being made), and 3. having no particular interest in it. I'm expected to be the person who makes cross-team collaboration happen, despite not being a "people person." And I'm expected to do all that while mentoring younger team members, despite having no reasonable time to do so. Companies pay lip service to the whole idea of helping you define your career goals and direction, but it only really applies to when you do what they have in mind for you.

falcolas 6y ago

Well said. And that's great thing about a hobby - you don't have to be good at it, nor does it have to make you money.

monkeynotes 6y ago

> For me, that new interest has been electronic music production This is exactly what I came to after also losing interest in my job defining who I am. I came to the same conclusion, work is just work. I do it purely for the money and fulfilment in mentoring. The products we make seem entirely meta to the overall human cause. Modern life has little meaning, it's so abstract. You rarely ever get to see any use in the output of your efforts. Creating something for yourself, something real and tangible, is one way of finding something small and finding that satisfaction one misses in the toil of daily life.

robocat 6y ago

> developing 4 bar loops and hoarding gear. Those are the antithesis of a productive producer. Or philosophically, your personal choices on whatever takes your fancy are the reasons for working; they are a higher meaning to life than working to feed and house yourself.

gabereiser 6y ago

>...open your mind and follow your heart... I can't emphasize this enough. Your career shouldn't define you. It should be a byproduct of who you are. Not the defining trait. It's hard to realize this at the beginning when you are trying to climb the ladder but after 20 years you begin to realize: In the end you die, if you didn't live a life you want, it's your fault. Open your heart, get in touch with that inner kid, do hobbies and things that excite you. It's ok to change.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

watermelon59 6y ago

> Instead of fight it, I accept it and look at it as a natural part of growth, not stagnation. It opens up the possibility for you to take your job for what it is—a job—and explore new hobbies and interests. I know what you mean there, and I've gotten there a few years ago, but I'm still not entirely satisfied with my overall situation. What I find is that as I get older and progress in my career, new "challenges" are things I never signed up for, and have no interest in. I was rather satisfied with things as a junior and then mid level engineer. I was assigned tasks/projects, got them done, called it a day. The paycheck was already pretty good. I wasn't particularly interested in a promotion to senior, given how stressed out senior engineers seem to be. I had (and still have) no interest in taking on leadership roles, much less management. I already get anxious enough about my own responsibilities, so no, thanks, I don't want to be responsible for other peoples' actions as well. It's all moot though. Despite having made the above clear to my managers, they promoted me to senior. And now whenever I try to retreat into doing individual, technical work, they throw the "that's not work suitable for your level" card at me. I'm being coerced into a leadership role to build an entirely new service, despite 1. having never built a service from the ground up, 2. having never been on a team that did it (thus being exposed to the decisions being made), and 3. having no particular interest in it. I'm expected to be the person who makes cross-team collaboration happen, despite not being a "people person." And I'm expected to do all that while mentoring younger team members, despite having no reasonable time to do so. Companies pay lip service to the whole idea of helping you define your career goals and direction, but it only really applies to when you do what they have in mind for you.