The question has been bugging me lately. I have not had a great start to the year. Lots of questions whirling around my head bringing me down. About my present…about my future…where I am, where I should be…where I am going, where I should be going.
Have been really quite down about it all actually. I don’t know if work is solely the root of my blues, or if it’s just a good thing to point to as being part of the problem.
But I had a brief conversation with an acquaintance at a salon. She and I often talk about travel. Places we’ve been and where we want to go. She began to describe a client who she didn’t understand. An incredibly accomplished and successful woman, but never took a vacation. She was afraid of leaving the office. My friend was puzzled as to why someone who had the means wouldn’t take time out to enjoy the fruits of her labor. I said:
“One has to make a choice in life…do you live to work, or do you work to live?”
I’ve said that dozens of times, but I realized at that moment that I wasn’t completely listening to myself. I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to figure out where I’m going in my career…what my dreams are with work…grumbling at my dissatisfaction with where I am…how I am perceived. All in relation to JOB.
But is a job really how I want to define my life? As it is at this moment, absolutely not.
I have a head start. In the 2 or 3 days following that conversation, I have had at least 2 or 3 instances of co-workers/friends talking to me and about me…describing me as a traveller…an adventurer. “So where is your next big trip?” “You just can’t take a normal vacation can you!” “You haven’t been to Hawaii? That surprises me given the places you’ve been!”
So, there are people in the world who define me as a traveller and adventurer…NOT as a cubicle rat. Now I need to work on convincing myself, and the REST of the world of that 🙂
Good. New Year’s Resolution #5.
I’m NOT going to let my JOB define who I am as a human being.
xo
en