Do you have time to be Bo Jackson - A Two Career Star
Here’s a quiz for you - name as many dual sports athletes as you can:
Deion Sanders football and baseball star.
Jim Brown was stellar in football and considered one of the greatest lacrosse players.
Charlie Ward played basketball and football.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee ran track and was a great basketball player.
Shaun White does snowboarding and skateboarding and dominates his sports.
Jackie Robinson dominated athletics at UCLA - Baseball, Football, Track, Basketball
How many dual career professionals do you know? We are increasingly moving towards a model where folks have more than one job. It used to be that women were expected to stay home, take care of the house and raise the kids. (Yes, I’m talking the dark ages!) Then we saw the rise of the dual income household - both parents working to make ends meet. Now, it’s all hands on deck - many working professionals hold a full time job AND do “a little something ” on the side. They have home businesses and consulting gigs that utilize their professional backgrounds.
We are all part of the connected world where so much of our lives are online. (Unless you’re still in the those dark ages I referenced above.) Many people check email on their BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm while they eat. Send invoices from bed or while brushing their teeth. Have conference calls in their pj’s over Skype at 6 am. These things are being done for the company they “work” as their own boss before/after going to work for their employer.
Mommy and Daddy are now the dual career stars juggling not only their work lives but also their family lives with the kids in tow. The thing to keep in mind is that in most cases the career of the dual sports star was short lived. He/she burned themselves out earlier than if they had focused on just one sport. Don’t let this happen to you. Yes it may be exciting and you get a great a sense of accomplishment but at what cost? It’s important that you set paramaters around the work you do outside of the office. Maintain a schedule and do your best to stick to it. Money is good. Sense of accomplishment and success is great. But none of this is of value without the good health to take advantage of it.
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Tags: Career, Career Advice, Duane
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August 19th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Self-employed people are sort of used to that. We have to be marketeers, sales people, accountants, tax planners, all at the same time. And oh, do some actual consulting work as well :-)
In my case there is also grief counseling but that I do as a volunteer, through our church (Stephen Ministry). Time management is very essential to get all that under one hat.
Regards,
Joerg
August 19th, 2009 at 12:31 am
You are absolutely correct about time management. Either you manage it effectively or you go crazy.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Most people in today’s work force have dual (or more) careers not by choice, but because they need the extra jobs to make the same amount of money they used to be able to make in a single career.
I can cut my standard of living, open up a new income stream, or change careers. Of the three, taking a second job seems to be the line of least resistance for many people. Between jobs shipped off shore and higher productivity, we have been in a collapsing jobs market for about 10 years making changing career fields much harder. Ask any recruiter how many applications for each opening and how long they’ve had huge numbers of people applying for jobs for which they are marginally qualified or would be below their education and training.
When money is tight, the only answer is work harder and work more.
December 10th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Good post mate!! Keep ‘em flowing!