A question everyone should answer for themselves

Yeah, good stuff dale, I think a better lesson is to figure out the lifestyle you wanna live then develop a career that'll support it.


I'd be pissed if I just spent a hundred and fifty grand to send my kid to college and this guys career counseling leads them to pursue a life making balloon animals at a traveling carnival. 

This video speaks to what I've been thinking about for years now.  I too tolerate my job so I can get money to provide for my family and afford to do what I want when I get time to do it.  If I were a bachelor I could do "what I want" all the time, but what I want most is to be a family man surrounded by love, growth and the evolution of the soul that comes with knowing that you're focusing on and learning about how raising kids is a worthy commitment and qualifiies in its own right as the goal in life.  Being happy about providing for the fam and affording to pursue my recreational activities has been enough for me to stay focused on my job, but I continue to wonder about the validity of that focus.  Am I cheating myself of my best life by working at something that doesn't fulfill all of my desires?  Would I be throwing away an opportunity to be "set" if I were to walk away from what I have built up in almost 18 years with the company that I manage?

When you work 40 hours a week year in and year out, overtime sprinkled in, only major holidays and about 3 weeks a year off, but obviously, if you're paying attention   , I have flexibility that allows me to venture about and fit quick yakfishing trips in to my day to day schedule on a year round basis, it does feel at times like the life is being sucked out of you slowly.  The balance that I've achieved in my work-family/home-yakfish reality is very rewarding, but I've been pondering lately how I have conditioned myself to a point where I feel like I need a certain level of engagement in activities that nourish my soul - be it family or yakfishing or soccer or watching salmon spawn - and that need has been peaking in the past two years because of some level of turmoil at my job.  The turmoil has to do with the owners getting older and expecting me to step up and take the reigns.  Instead of being the guy who can manage all the incoming work, pump out money-making energy when needed, and have my flexibility, I feel that I'm at a point where I need to choose between a future with the company where I'm in the driver's seat, more involved at work and well taken care of, or I need to find something else that will pay the bills so I can continue to really pour my best energy into what I have developed an incredibly intense passion for.  I am all torn up over this all the time lately, and I can't help but feel spoiled for even having the notion that I have a choice.  It's that hope for achieving my dreams that makes me believe in this video.  It's the right thing, and we're all in touch with what it's talking about - I'm confident of that.  It's all about timing though - when can you pull off a switch from what you need to do to what you want to do?  Or can you at all?  It's one of the most important things in life - not changing or switching or chasing a dream in your vocation, but dreaming, hoping, and striving for a life that serves much much more than your plans for retirement, kids' college, or that new toy you want.  It's about identifying what makes you feel alive and pursuing that whenever you can.

I know one thing that is true for me regarding this subject matter:  NCKA has helped me along the path. 

+1 Art & Eric.  I get the message in the vid but dislike the implied judgmental bit. ie: "That's stupid" part. That dude needs to be slapped with a muddy glove.

Very well said Eric, I think if you really listen to the video it does make you think. It's like the old question,
if you won the lotto, would you stay at your job? No, I would move to the coast and fish more! 
Jeff

+1 Art & Eric.  I get the message in the vid but dislike the implied judgmental bit. ie: "That's stupid" part. That dude needs to be slapped with a muddy glove.

Perhaps if you disagree with the"stupid" part it means that you are somehow closer to the goal than some others.  Personally I feel like my work life is stupid... I hate what I do, and it at times makes me feel bad about myself and where I am in life.  I find myself wishing my life away in 5 day chunks.  Of course it isn't all bad.  I enjoy my home life... I love my wife and want for very little.  Still, I can't help but feel that it could somehow be better.  I know what utter bliss feels like, as I have managed to achieve it in short stretches... but it never occurs when work is involved.  Deep in the woods, sitting on a sunbathed rock with my wife at my side pitching a kastmaster into a ice cold mountain lake catching trout on every other cast.  However, do to lack of time... it has been 3 years.  Thats too long...

Right now work is so slow for me I would be very happy to put in a 40 hour week. No matter what job you have it could seem to be stupid at times but nobody needs to imply that what others are doing is stupid. People can be satisfied doing all kinds of work as long as they're doing it well. Just another perspective.

Right now work is so slow for me I would be very happy to put in a 40 hour week. No matter what job you have it could seem to be stupid at times but nobody needs to imply that what others are doing is stupid. People can be satisfied doing all kinds of work as long as they're doing it well. Just another perspective.

I didn't take it as an outright implication that "standard" work is stupid.  I took it to mean that it is stupid to do something that makes you miserable just to pay your bills.  You just used the word "satisfied".  My assumption would be that the philosopher guy being quoted would say you are a step ahead of plenty of other folks.  Like you said, just different perspectives.

Yeah, good stuff dale, I think a better lesson is to figure out the lifestyle you wanna live then develop a career that'll support it.

This. 

I currently do what I love for work, but it took 24 full semesters of university and a postgraduate degree that I will never use before I figured out what I wanted to do.

Linda doesn't know what she wants to do yet, and she has a hard time loving the job that she has. 

Was gross ist am Menschen, das ist, dass er eine Briicke ist und kein Zweck ist.

Great post and responses. For most of us, it is simply too late to "do want we want." Doing what you love , often requires you to live with little to no money, at least until you can acually start making money at it; like being a writer. With the number of people in the world, in my opinion, most will never get to do what they really want to do or dreamed of doing. A person can get fullfilment from an unfullfilling job, but it takes alot of mental strength and positive attitude, I am short on both of those half the time!!! Metallica has a song about many of us: "Sad but True"    . For most of us I believe that we are OK doing a job that may never fullfil us as a person. However, getting out on the weekends to do what you love, what makes you feel like "at one" with whatever that may be. These times and places can recharge our fullfilment tank, but we have to make time for that and do it. Many of us envy the guys that live on the coast or up in the mountains, because they are already "there." They, most anyways, have the same issues in life we have, but they can get to that place they feel "at one" in much less time than most. The rest of us settle for things/places, because the ones we really want/like are too far for our short "at one' experiences.

 

I was blessed with a work ethic growing up in a restaurant family and ended up doing what I wanted to do. I think the real issues are:
1. People graduating from college without a career plan
2. High unemployment particularly for new college grads because of lack of job opportunity

I think the "forget about money and follow your dream" actually contributes to people not having a career plan and more people on government subsidies. The reality is that you have to work or live off the government or live off your parents. Since I choose to work, I will make the most out of any job. I worked for the USPS for 4 years sorting mail. Did I love the job, no but it paid for my college and that enabled me to live my dream. Yeah, I REALLY wanted to play bass guitar in a rock band. Guess I should have done that instead. 

I don't believe in making a job out of what I love.  The way I am eventually it would just feel like a job and would no longer be something I loved doing. 

When I was a kid all I wanted to do was surf.  All day, every day, it was all I wanted.  I heard the advice from others to "do what you love" but I wasn't all that talented at surfing.  I realized early that it's more about finding a job that allows you to do what you love.

My dad and I own a business together.  If the fishing is good I can come in late, leave early or take the day off.  I love my job!

Josh

Many of us envy the guys that live on the coast or up in the mountains, because they are already "there."

I've mentioned this before, but my jealousy of clayman has taken a dark turn towards irrational hatred... lol.  His fishing reports haunt my dreams.

I was thinking about this just the other day. I am so fortunate, lucky-as-sh*t, and never forget it. BUT I still bust my ass regularly. That said,


I think it is critically important to do something you love, even if you never get paid for it. If it is playing music, training dogs, stringing beads, whatever. That is where you should completely disregard money.
I think the really important thing is to never stop doing that thing, regardless of what life throws at you (like having to get a not-so-great job to pay the bills). If you are lucky and can make a career out of that thing, good on ya! If not, it doesn't matter as long as you are enjoying yourself.  The worst is to see folks who you once knew as talented artists, gardeners, mechanics, who give up those things for nose-to-the-grindstone work and then are depressed about it. That is waste IMHO. I think those folks are who the vid is really speaking to.

These days I know I love gardening and landscaping in the spring, fishing from my kayak in the summer, and making crazy artwork stuff in the fall and winter months. I have to have a joe-job on the 40hr side (sometimes less, working on it ) to make that happen. Such is life.

Would the 20something me like the 40something me?  I wonder often, and it depends on the day a lot of times. But when I can fish in the morning and paint in the afternoon, in a t shirt & slaps, with the summer sun slanting through a glistening microbrew on the outdoor workbench, knowing that dinner will be homegrown and fresh caught food........office days seem far away indeed.

. Many of us envy the guys that live on the coast or up in the mountains, because they are already "there."

for me, that is the "lucky-as-sh*t" part. To hang on is unfortunately the "ass busting" part.

Great thread, and worthy responses all. Thanks to Surfingdude & all.

Would the 20something me like the 40something me? 

My young self would be upset that with the money I have I still dont have a cool car, awesome sound system and arcade games in my living room. 

 I think the real trick in life is to learn to love the things you have to do.  Getting up at dark othirty sounds like hell to some, yet we fisherman (except divers and SinCoast) don't mind.  In fact some of us start to enjoy it.  Even love it.

I was blessed with a work ethic growing up in a restaurant family and ended up doing what I wanted to do. I think the real issues are:
1. People graduating from college without a career plan
2. High unemployment particularly for new college grads because of lack of job opportunity

I think the "forget about money and follow your dream" actually contributes to people not having a career plan and more people on government subsidies. The reality is that you have to work or live off the government or live off your parents. Since I choose to work, I will make the most out of any job. I worked for the USPS for 4 years sorting mail. Did I love the job, no but it paid for my college and that enabled me to live my dream. Yeah, I REALLY wanted to play bass guitar in a rock band. Guess I should have done that instead. 

Scott, do you have a brother?  I saw a Californian chef on cooking network who looked a lot like you, and shared some of your mannerisms.

I have to disagree with you a little.  I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I made a career plan.  After graduating I started to work at my chosen profession, and absolutely hated it (even though the money was great).  I finally chose a new path after I realizing that I was going to lose Linda due to my crazy work hours.  We decided to move to the US, and I went back to school to study environmental science (what I really wanted to do).  I had a job in my field before I graduated (even in a tough economy), and have never been on any form of government welfare, although my parents let us live with them for sub-market rent until we saved enough for a 20% down payment.  I think I was able to get a job in such a tough field/economy precisely because I absolutely love what I do, and work as hard as only someone passionate about their field can work.