@ Work

Stumbled across this from a pen pal's (yeah, we have been pen pals for eons now) site. Interesting stuff.

You don't have to be passionate about your job. It's ok to compartmentalize; you can just do something from 9 to 5 to pay the bills, as long as the job leaves enough time, energy and money to do what you really want to be doing. So, for example, if you are really good at picking stocks but find it boring, and you love painting but could never get paid for it, there is nothing wrong with being a stock broker during the day even though it isn't your passion. I think it's silly and self-indulgent to be a starving artist when you could comfortably balance the two. In other words, I am not some hippie idealist who thinks you must just do whatever you are passionate about without considering the real world. The key, of course, is finding the balance. Don't let your job get in the way of your life either.

Having said that, it would certainly be ideal to find a job you DO love. It would be wonderful to wake up and get paid to do something you would do for free, even if it means you aren't making top dollar. My dad loves his job in that way (inexplicably) and I would love to find something like that. Maybe I will make a list sometime of things I love to do, and I will see if I can make a career out of any of them.

Even if you love your job, you aren't going to love it every day and you aren't going to love every aspect of it. It would be silly to expect that, and it would be stupid to reject a job that is only 97% good, or to quit every time you find yourself in a rut. If you continue to hate it for months or years, you might want to consider other alternatives. But you will have to show some stick-to-it-iveness, so expect it.

People in my generation will probably have a lot of different careers. Nobody does the 'company man' thing anymore. So I need not stress over this decision as if I am setting my fate in stone.

Having said that, though, people in my generation are absurdly self-indulgent in the way they flit between jobs as if they will be young forever, stopping off at mom and dad's basement when they can't find a job they 'love'. I don't want to be that guy any more than I already have. At some point, you do have to just pull the trigger and grow up and do something. We can't keep 'discovering ourselves' into our 40s.

Hmmm ... I reckon that for the longest time, I figured that I AM the quintessential Company Man, and right now, even with all the shit, I'm still ok with it. Most days I am happy.

Isn't that what matters? ;)