The Problem of Actively Searching

Spending half of your day searching for opportunities might be the most logical way for most of us. To get something, you’re going straight to the goal and will get it with a higher chance.

Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s much better to use a different approach in life than go towards your goal. Let me explain.

The problem is that in most cases ‘searching’ for something can lead to finding nothing.

It’s like when you want to find your lost car keys and spend several hours searching for them throughout your whole room. But if you take your eyes off for a minute, you’ll see the keys right where they belong. At the most obvious place that they can be.

Most of the time it really gets us. We spent so much time and effort and couldn’t find anything. At these moments we even start talking to the universe and asking how it can disrespect our efforts.

That’s the thing. Doesn’t matter how much you spend on searching for something, matters only the fact if you’ve found it or not.

However, it’s not as bad as you might think. We can learn a new approach from this problem and start thinking from a different perspective.

Sometimes, when we want to find something, we need to do everything to not find it. Yeah, sounds crazy. But trust me, sometimes we’re so focused on specific parts of the process that we don’t see anything surrounding them.

When you search, you concentrate on different objects but don’t see the whole picture at the same time.

The same problem exists with finding a job. You’re a specialist and want to finally find the right job for you. All of us have been in that situation, and most of us end up finding nothing. As always.

However, when you’re improving over and over, upgrading your skills, and updating your portfolio, people will start noticing you.

It’s the art of ‘being found’ that can completely change the way you see your life and job.

I’ve been in that situation myself. I’ve spent over 2 years constantly searching for a job, and the only thing that I’ve found is a part-time job for some no-name company without pay.

However, after understanding the principle that maybe I don’t need to focus on finding the job and just improve over time, I finally started getting as many opportunities as possible and currently working in an American company as a Senior UI/UX designer.

If you’re chasing a butterfly, then you won’t catch it. You need to build a garden so butterflies will come to you.

That’s the main thing I want to convey. Maybe it’s not the best time for you to search for a job, a partner, or a life goal.

Maybe it’s just better to do what you love and see how life goes. Maybe it’s better to truly live and try to focus as little as possible. You need to try it yourself

This approach is called a diffused mode of thinking and is well described in the book “Mind for Numbers” by Barbara Oakley.

As Steve Jobs once said — “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”