Non-Career Advice: Liza Lubell.

Non-Career Advice is a series that asks people - young, old, and in a range of occupations - for words of wisdom unrelated to work, career-building, dollars, or getting ahead.

Liza Lubell / Floral Designer

Also: Crafter / world traveler  / apple pie & whiskey aficionado 

Age: 32

Focus on what has staying power. (Hint: it's not money.) "When I first began my flower career, I didn’t really have much in mind in the way of goals. I knew I loved flowers and thought supporting myself vis a vis “playing with flowers” all day sounded like a good idea. As I dove deeper into my work, though, I put my professional hat on a little tighter and started to create some goals: wouldn’t it be nice to have my work in a magazine, or to travel to another country for a job, or have people write articles about me, and so on.

At first, checking some of those items off my list was exhilarating. But while I'm certainly proud of my work, I've realized something over the course of the past few years: the more we rely on external forms of praise to validate ourselves, the less it works — and the exhilaration I get from those sorts of successes doesn't have much staying power. The things that do are much simpler (and, it turns out, right under my nose all along): family, friends, a sense of home. The happiness I get from cultivating and nurturing personal relationships is much longer-lasting than any I could derive elsewhere. It makes me feel rich in a way that's much more special than money."

Thank you so much, Liza! More from the Non-Career Advice series, here.

Photo by Matthew Williams.