Just be thankful you have options...

So I was whining, err…writing about career choices and whether your full-time work position is your passion, and if it isn’t, should you quit and run after what is your passion? And then what do you do if you don’t know what your passion is? Then you’re really cooked, aren’t you?

Now, if my current employer happens upon this post, let me say that I am happy
doing what I am doing. I like the work and the people. It’s just not as
financially satisfying as I hoped, which makes me feel as if maybe I have
“missed the boat” somehow. But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to quit and walk
away. I’ve been unemployed. It’s not something that I, my wonderful and
understanding wife, and my four kids enjoyed.

Of course, just as I opened the question of “shouldn’t my job be more than just a paycheck?”, then I get a phone message stating that a potential opportunity still awaits for me in a different (yet related) field than where I have spent 15 of the 17 years of my professional life. Hmmm.

It makes me tired, all of these “options.”

I have a very strong Christian faith. I’m not your run-of-the-mill reactionary Christian. I question things. I don’t swallow everything that Christian leaders say just because they say it.

But my faith is unshakable. I believe in God. I accept that the only true way to heaven is through a belief in the death, resurrection and ascension of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ.

I thought, however, that life’s decisions were supposed to be easier to decode. How do I decide between 2 good opportunities? Both have risks and rewards. Aren’t I supposed to see a spotlight on the one that God has prepared for me? And if I can’t figure out which is the “right” one, does that mean that my faith is weak? But wait, can’t God take any situation and turn it for good?

It was supposed to be easier than this, right?

igmo

Is this all there is to my career? It's just work?!?

You know, there are many times in my life when I’ve stopped to ask, “what the heck am I doing with my life?”

Now, as a happily married father of four (and I really mean that in the sense that I know that marriage is NOT what you see in the movies, it’s a lot of f’ing hard work), I don’t question my role in a human sense. I don't sit around asking questions or making statements such as:

“Why do I exist?"
"Is there a God?"
"The world is a scary place! Why would I bring children into it?"
"I could never love any one person for my whole life.”

What do I mean when I ask “what the heck am I doing with my life?” I mean it in the sense that I have little, or no, true career/professional direction. I’m 40 years old, have spent nearly seventeen years in the “career” workforce – fifteen in the same field – and have learned that I don’t necessarily like what I do.

Thing is, I'm not passionate about anything that I’ve done; publishing, foodservice management, executive assistant, etc. What I want to do is, um, err, uhhh – crap, I don’t know! I realize that life's greatest satisfaction can't come from a job. It's the tangible, important things that matter - my relationship with my wife, my relationship as a father to my kids. But aren't I allowed to enjoy my work?

It’s not as if I’m one of those people that hate his job. I work with reasonable people making a fairly reasonable wage. Its just that I find myself spending time thinking, “is this all there is for me in my work life?”

I realize the overwhelming majority of people never reach a point where their work is enjoyably satisfying. It wouldn’t be called work otherwise. And if you wanted to do it anyway, why would you be paid to do it?

All of this takes me back to the slow-to-accept belief that I won’t be happy at my job for as long as I need money. How utterly disappointing. Since the average American spends more time at work than many of our Western society counterparts, I would hope that I could work doing something that I enjoyed – not just for money.

But that seems to be lost in the reality of life. So, as I spend my days helping other people accomplish what they want, and earning retirement income for the owners of the company I work for, I also spend quite a bit of time hoping, praying and attempting to find out what I really want to do with my life.

Where to from here? Hmm.