Be Happy in Your Career

This has been on ongoing struggle with me. I have left several careers simply because living “a life of quiet desperation” wasn’t what I dreamed of as a child or enjoy as an adult. Necessity has led me to take a career course that often provides financial rewards yet little elss. I am now in search of definition, inspiration, and something more than a paycheck. I hope I find it.

I agree. However, I may be “free to pursue my destiny” but I can not pursue something which I can not identify. What is my “destiny”?

“many of us at middle age find ourselves living with a twenty-year-old decision that no longer fits us, if it ever did. We’re competent but unfulfilled.”

I can relate. Unfortunately, once you have been in a career for a while it is almost impossible to get anyone to realize that you can do something else. Even more disturbing is when you can not get your current employer recognize that you have much more to offer the organization then the role you presently fill. Talk about feeling stuck and unfulfilled.

“Unfortunately, many of us build our financial lives around our competence instead of our authentic Design. We feel stuck. We think we can’t do what we are designed to do because we can’t afford to. Our lifestyle costs too much.”

Not true in my case. I have a fairly well paying job. We own our cars - which are not new and live in a modest home. The only new furniture we own are two chairs (now 3 years old), we have one TV, no cable, basic phone services cell and landline. We are essentially debt free. Our major debt is our mortgage and my school bills. (I had to go back to school to get “paper” as no one is willing to recognize my expertise and inherent talents.) With the current increase in fuel cost and its subsequent effects the dollar goes a significantly shorter distance. When it is all said and done, after all the bills are paid there is not much left. Retirement- does not look good if at all. With all that said, in order to provide for my family I can not afford a job that pays less and need one that pays more. Whether it is fulfilling or meaningful is not a priority. In fact at this point in time it is not even a consideration. It simply has to pay very well and be tolerable. I guess you could say that at this point in time I am on the low end of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Would I like something different” Yes. Do I see it happening anytime soon? No.

I have sampled a bushelful of books, exercises and other systems that purport to help me discover the activities, pursuits, works that both challenge me and offer the possibility of great fulfillment. Most of these reach at best only a superficial depth in an everchanging sense of self. I suspect that any adequate approach toward this self-knowledge would require a lengthly questioning of one’s life in the form of a journal kept over months if not longer. Each conclusion would have to be in some way tested outwardly in ones life to ascertain its meaningfulness or validity. But who has the energy, courage, moral fortitude, self-esteem or social support to carry out such a bold undertaking? I fear not many of us do. And what do social scientists have to offer in the way of reliable research regarding any meaningful outcomes of such undertakings which might well be largely self-directed???

I have been reading these “American Dream” articles for a while now, courtesy of someone who subscribes and is a committed ’self-helper’, consumer of that type of literature. I have come to the conclusion that there is a very important thing missing. One dimension of progressively better human living is the individual responsibility to figure out what we are all about– as Socrates reportedly said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” No question about it. However, we come into this world, and we find many of our joys in it, by way of community (or society, if you prefer that general term). We find our place in the world mostly by finding our place in the community. If our community does not provide opportunities for us to continue our particular quests for meaning, we are lost. The fact that we are blogging about this issue, commenting on the fact that we don’t have a clue as to how to proceed, points up this reality. Each of us has to ask these questions: am I using the resources my community has for me to grow as an individual? Does my community have such resources? If my community doesn’t, why not? Could I create or help create that which my community lacks so people like me have a new resource to tap in our quest for meaning? What do I need to do, or what conditions must I meet, or what situation do I need to be in, so that I can make this happen or contribute to making this happen? Who else is thinking like me who could join forces to make common cause?

Your blog is very informative, I have learned so much from it. It is like daily newspaper :). Added to fav?s.