I found this Prepping Children for the 9 to 5 and I thought it was a great article to get you thinking about defining someday in your career.
If you don’t have time to read the whole article, there are two good quotes from it at the end. I’ve also pulled a few points from the article and rephrased them into questions that you can ask yourself about your own career:
Q. What is your attitude toward your career? Do you approach your carreer as a way to pursue your passion or pay your rent? Or are you holding out for the perfect job that will allow you to accomplish both?
Q. Do you think that taking a job that does not speak to your passion is wrong? Or would you take a job you are not passionate about, seeing it as a step towards something else?
Q. Does work have to be personally fulfilling, or is it enough to serve someone else (customer, client, boss, coworkers, students) well?
Quotes
“[The author's son is part of Generation Y]…whose members are so convinced that work should be personally fulfilling that they see photocopying as beneath them.”
“…work can be glorious but grinding, worthwhile and wretched, a place you can’t wait to get to and can’t wait to leave, something you love but hate to do.”
This last one makes me think, Really? Is that all we should expect from work? That it will create a roller coaster out of our working hours by bringing us from love to hate, anticipation to avoidance, all the while reminding us that it’s not about us, and at least it pays the rent? Come on. This sounds like someone is settling for a job that pays the bills (even though the work makes them manic), and hoping that their kids will “have some sense” and do the same thing too.
