Curious Parallels

Or perhaps not that curious, but something I've noticed lately: the parallel between so-called personal life and professional life. To come to the point, the acquisition of both partner and career are things that are more-or-less expected or 'normal', that both seem superficially attractive but are perhaps rather less than fun in practice. They both require an impressive, well-rounded application, well-marketed and defended with confidence and maturity. They should both be, technically, attainable, but both seem pretty unlikely in reality.

The crucial difference, of course, is that one can (I hope) learn not to aspire to a personal life and to get by without it, but that it's pretty crucial to get a career. And thus all the problems and barriers and inadequacies cannot in this case be ignored but have to be faced up to, because in the end (indeed in the short term) I do need a career of some kind. I think there's a danger of treating career prospects like personal prospects, providing the "yeah, it might be nice, but never mind" response, rather than really making an effort to succeed.

It's been suggested by a number of people lately that I'm getting too mired in thinking about careers and why I can't see myself getting one, and that I should either just get on an apply for things (which I now suspect isn't worthwhile until I've managed to improve both the 'produce' and the 'marketing'), or to go and do something entirely different to take my mind off it for a while (can anyone recommend a gap-year/conservation-project/volunteer-abroad kind of organisation?). Maybe they're right.