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Today's
Meditation:
It's interesting to see just how many people start their
careers extremely early in life-- in their teens if they
head to college with a certain degree in mind-- and end up
burning out rather early because they end up doing
something that may bring in money, but that doesn't
fulfill them in any way. I've known plenty of people
who aren't at all happy in their jobs, yet they feel that
they're stuck in what they're doing and can't get out,
especially if they now have families who depend upon their
income.
One of the most fortunate things I ever did was spend
three years living and working in Europe. There I
found that many, many people don't consider starting a
career until their late 20's, after their studies and
after their travels. They don't consider their first
choices of careers to be their last choice-- the people
that I met knew that it might take several tries to find
just the right career for them. And that perspective
helped them to be able to be honest with themselves.
"No, this job really isn't for me" is a very
valid response to doing certain types of work.
There's often a lot of pressure on us to start our careers
and start earning an income. If we bend to that
pressure too early without finding out about several
different types of work that we may be suited for, there's
a good chance that we'll never be able to work in the
areas of our true callings. And when we find our
true callings, then we're able to earn a living doing
something that we truly love, and when we love our work,
our contribution to that work can be much, much stronger.
You are entitled to do-overs. It's one of your
rights-- and often needs-- in life. If you don't take
advantage of this right, then do your best to love the
work that you do find, even if it may not be your true
calling.
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For further
thought:
What you need to do is think of work as
"vocation." This word
may seem
stilted
in its
tone, but it has a wisdom within it. It
comes from the Latin
word
for calling,
which comes from the
word for voice. In
those meanings it touches
on what work really
should be. It
should be something that calls to you as
something
you want to do,
and it
should be something that gives voice to
who
you are and
what you want to say to the world.
Kent Nerburn
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