This is one of my favorite conversations to have: if money and obligations were not a factor, what job / career would you want to do? And of course the obvious follow up, why aren’t you doing that, or working towards it?
I know I’m blessed to get paid to do a couple of my passions – fighting cancer / promoting cycling, but I would say that good fortune was as much a player in that as intent (assuming one can view getting cancer in 1996 as “good fortune”). But to be very honest, had I not gotten sick back in the day it’s very doubtful I would have chosen these areas for work.
My dream job would definitely be to be a pilot, but a really crappy set of eyes and old man time have denied that one. C’est la vie, I got to ride in the back of plenty of high speed aircraft none-the-less. And as I was exiting the USAF I literally created a dream job overseeing the Special Ops combat training team I ran as an enlisted guy – think getting paid to be the “bad guys” in training exercises! – but I didn’t see the better politically prepared opponent who gave me the old end around in the jungle that is the Civil Service…
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| What I used to do... |
Now as my last kiddo is approaching 18 and an eventual exit from Chez Brewer I see another opportunity ahead. For the first time in my life since I was 21, no kids and hence no obligation to anyone but moi’. Yes, I know I could be in a relationship and who knows what that will bring, but right now it’s got me thinking back to my basic initial question: what do I really want to do? Odds are I’ll continue to work and grow here at LIVESTRONG as I really do love what I do. But for the sake of the mind game, I not only have the room to think about it, I also have the opportunity to act on it if I so choose.
It’s an interesting question for sure: so what would you do? and what are you doing about it? Good luck and good fortune regardless – make it happen. Ciao for now – Cb…
3 comments:
I struggle with that same question. I make decent money, I get to travel the US and some of the world, meet interesting people, get good corporate experience, yada yada yada.
It's not fulfilling, but right now it lets me take care of my family. I've done a lot of soul searching lately trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. A friend of mine, a photographer and mountain climber by passion, wrote this in a blog post as he was leaving for a month of climbing in Antartica: "...following passion in life – while not always easy and comfortable – makes one whole and happy."
if all of us can figure out what is 'our dream job' and we make it happen then all the 'not so dream jobs' end up NOT getting done (I am pretty darn sure not many people will tell you their dream job is to collect garbage or be the drive thru person at Burger King.....well, maybe for a very small segment of society that actually can be the case, but you get what I mean)
that in the picture, maybe the question is not 'what our dream job would be' (even though it is something that many of us do and should figure out at times) but what is it we want to do 'in life' because to me it is definitely possible to actually be alright having 'not so dream of a job' that pays the bills or allows us to take care of what we have the responsibility to take care of, yet, still do what is important to us in life.....what we feel we are here on this earth to get done without it being part of what we do for a living.
If I could make enough to pay my bills (which is not much actually) I would work for a charity. fund raising or doing whatever the charity wanted me to do. I originally wanted to be a forest ranger but there is a long waiting list for that job.
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