My father changed jobs twice in more than 30 years. His father was a carpenter throughout his life and defined himself as provider to his family within that role. That's how it was in their day...what a long way we have traveled in our orientation to work since then.
Today, an adult can expect to change jobs more than five times in their lifetime. This is a daunting number if we consider the edge my father must have walked during the few occasions that time demanded change.
In my father's time, people asked, "what are you?" In his day, you were a doctor, a labourer... a teacher... defined by the role you took on at work. More importantly, your purpose for working was to provide for your family. Work was sustenance... and often, nothing more. If you did not succeed at work, you may have felt that you failed as a provider and faced the trauma of an existential crisis.
The challenge in our transition from his time to ours is to redefine ourselves in light of a rapidly changing economy. The question is...
Who are we in relation to our work?
If it no longer serves us well to adopt the role we play within our chosen occupation... perhaps it's time to align our career choices with our self-growth and development... instead of the other way around. In other words, not only can we choose our careers according to our individual values, we now have the freedom to feed our spirit through our work!
The gift within the challenge is...
Passion is Wealth!
You will always make more money following your passion!
Consider this simple exercise: If you never had to make another dollar in your life, what would you spend your time doing? Make your list (and don't let your internal dialogue limit your choices). This list represents the many ways you would choose to feed your spirit if you had the opportunity.
The good news is... we live in a time when we create our opportunities. Take your list and turn it on its side. Under each heading, make a new list of the variety of ways a person can make money doing each activity.
For example, if I love to spend my time traveling, I might consider that a person can travel and write about their experiences or create photographs for travel books. They might choose to teach English in foreign countries and learn about other cultures in the process. They may decide to join the army or apply for work with a company that requires them to travel. How many more options can you think of? The point is, if you are not feeding your spirit through your work, you're starving it... no wonder you push the snooze button in the morning!
Now, before we all go out and quit our jobs in favor of traveling the world, it is important to consider what (in our current career path) feeds our spirit and what starves us. What causes you stress and what brings you pleasure?
It may simply be that your intending in your current occupation has fallen out of alignment with your job description. What do you have the power to change and what is beyond your control? The key here is not to find the perfect job, but to build a career that feeds your spirit enough to ride the waves of chaos when you must.
Exploring the answers to these questions will give you the clarity you are seeking when deciding whether to make a change within your chosen career... or whether to "become" something or someone entirely different.
Either way, perhaps it's time... to put your spirit to work!
