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I remember being taken aback by a guest at a resort where I worked as an activities host. They had asked me the usual questions: “How long have you worked here?” “Do you like it?” And then: “so what do you really want to do?” At the time, I was pretty settled. I had found a job that gave me the opportunity to use a ton of my skills: teaching dance, emceeing, and even singing – well, at least the first song to kick off karaoke night. I don’t know why, but I was so proud of my job that the question offended me. I certainly hadn’t gotten a double degree in music and drama to be a glorified life guard. (Oh yeah. I didn’t mention that part of the gig).
Sometimes, we don’t know what we actually want to do. That might be because we’re trying to pick from a list of careers that sound interesting, but may have never tried. As we get older and more experienced, the list of options gets way longer and more interesting, and our likes and dislikes become much more refined. I used to enjoy teaching, but realized eventually that after teaching the same class more than five times, I got bored. I crave novelty, so that needs to be a part of my career. I thought I wanted to be a Broadw ay performer at one point. Now the thought of performing the same show eight times per week for months, or even years, seems like it would drive me bonkers. I’d almost rather work as a customer service agent. At least my dialogue would change and I could improvise my lines!
We need to think outside the box when exploring career options. There are good and bad aspects to every job. I’ve never believed the old adage: If you do what you love, you never have to work a day in your life. That’s just not true. You will never have the perfect job. Even if you love your work, there’s almost always too much or too little of it. Too much and you eventually lose your passion for it. Too little, and you end up supporting yourself with another part-time or full-time job to make ends meet. That doesn’t mean we should stop looking for our dream job. It just means the adage isn’t accurate. I truly believe that people who do the work most suitable to them are happier and have less stress than those who take a job they don’t like. I mean we spend 40 hours a week at work. That’s a huge part of our waking lives. We spend additional hours commuting to work, eating lunch with co-workers, or thinking about our job during breaks. That’s a significant amount of time to think about how fortunate you are, or how stuck you are in a meaningless existence, and wonder what the point of it all is anyway.
I narrated a lesser known Louisa May Alcott book a few years back called “Work: A Story of Experience”. The work was fiction, but it was clear that Alcott had an almost religious view of work. Alcott’s journals (published after her death) revealed that while she was suffering from physical ailments in her later life, her doctor saw how much she needed to keep working, at least a bit, for her mental health. Her prior doctors had told her to stop working to save her energy. This was in the late 1800s- long before western doctors knew anything about the mind-body connection. Many people believe that you shouldn’t live for your work, but that you should work so that you can live. I believe in balance. I think that for many of us, having a career that we are passionate about is fantastic, and that the passion will bleed over into other aspects of our lives.
Rebecca H. Lee
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