Ideal Career vs. Ideal Life

I'm about to tell you something controversial: you don't have to love what you do for a living. You don't have to "find your passions" when looking for a career. You don't have to "turn your hobbies into income."

However, you do need to love what your career is doing for you. If you neither love your career nor love the reason why you're doing your career, then that is when you need to look for something else.

Now, sometimes, you could love your career but hate the lifestyle that it's giving you. Recently, I was doing seasonal work at Lowe's Home Improvement store in the garden center. I absolutely LOVED that job to the point where that job just consumed my thoughts. When Lowe's posted an opening for a plant specialist, I wanted that job really bad! I felt insulted when they gave it to someone else!

However, had I gotten that job, Lowe's would have consumed my time. I would have been working all kinds of hours and quite possibly would have sacrificed my ZUMBA classes. I would not have had the lifestyle that I wanted, which was having family time and available time to do other things for myself.

On the flip side, I did have a job that I didn't care for, but it had given me lots of free time. While working in EMS, I did have to work nights and days and for 12 hours each day. But here was my schedule:

Week one: four 12-hour nights, three nights off
Week two: three 12-hour days, four days off
Week three: three 12-hour nights, four nights off
Week four: four 12-hour days, EIGHT days off

That schedule would repeat the cycle when the next month came, so every month I would have one whole week off!

Had I appreciated the lifestyle the job had given me, I wouldn't have been so caught up in feeling so ill about the job. In addition, the job allowed me to write a book that I've always wanted to write, and there was plenty of down time where I could take online courses for further education.

So, I didn't care for the job. But I didn't hate it either. I did love the lifestyle it gave me and my family.

The lifestyle that you want ought to be more important than the job that you get. If your job could give you the lifestyle that you want, then that's the job for you. However, if you absolutely love the job but it's taking you away from the things that are most important to you, then you need to search elsewhere.

In this culture, we get caught up in "trying to find our purpose" and "doing what makes you come alive." We don't focus on the truly important things in life: family, personal development, service to other. We get more caught up in finding the "perfect job" than in pursuing a job that would give us our ideal lifestyle.

What is my ideal lifestyle? For one, I want to be at home with the family. I don't care to be away from home almost everyday for 8 or more hours a day. Anything that would allow me to stay at home would be perfect!

I like being available. If someone needs help, I don't want to say, "Sorry, I'm working." I'd like to be able to drop whatever I'm doing to give someone a hand.

I don't like working hard. If I'm going to work hard, it better be temporary and I better get something big from it. Working hard for little in return doesn't cut it.

I want to live a life of peace. Being busy all the time is repulsive to me. Living a life where I can't sit down and chill is not a life I desire.

So, what is your ideal life? No, I'm not talking about getting rich, traveling the world, and living the "good life." Your ideal life could simply be working on a farm all day, or doing charity work all day, or simply being at home with the kids. Those things are what you ought to pursue instead of pursuing your "dream job." Of course, if you could find a job or business that you love and have your ideal lifestyle, too, that would be a big bonus. But if you had to choose between the two, choose your lifestyle over a job.

Many of us hate our jobs, but we could perhaps learn to be at least NEUTRAL about our jobs if we see that they are giving us a life that we love. We could perhaps also learn to be at least neutral about our jobs if we stop focusing on what our dream career is.

While in college, I used to be a theatre major. I LOVE the theatre! To this day, I LOVE listening to musicals (don't get me started on Les Miserables songs!). However, being in the theatre full-time doesn't promote the lifestyle that I wanted. My life would be given to the theatre, so I decided to drop that theatre major and pursue another major.

Don't let your love of a career ruin your chances for having a life that you want. Careers come and go. People lose their jobs everyday. The market could change and leave you begging for bread. In fact, you could put so much love in a job that you would evaluate your worth based on that job. Don't do it! Pursue the things that would help you have a better life, that would promote the things that are important to you, and that would allow you to have more peace in life.

Whether working a business or working a job, we all have to do something to earn a living. Whatever we do, let it help us pursue what we truly want in life. And if that career that you do isn't something that excites you but at the very least is helping you get what you want in life, then stick with that until something better comes along.