Career Zingers #12: The Fiction of Our Career

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” – Mark Twain

Is your career a work of fiction? I think most of us believe our career is non fiction – based on facts, real events, and real people. On the surface most of us fail to recognize our career is a work of nonfiction – a story of imaginary events, invention and fabrication as opposed to mere fact. It it time to fully acknowledge the centrality of nonfiction within our career because:

1. We must realize how much our internal thoughts and stories influence all of our career experiences, emotions, and actions.
2. We are both the protagonist and writer of our career story and therefore have choice and authorship in how we understand our career and how we act in mundane and challenging situations.
3. We are not prisoners or victims of a malevolent author (job, boss, marriage, health) — like all experienced writers we must realize the bulk of our work consists of constant iteration and revision.

As Thomas M Cirignano stated: “Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.”

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David Zinger is a career, engagement, leadership, and work engagement expert. David fully resonates with the lyrics of Kris Kristofferson “a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction.”