[at-l] RE: Jobs, and life and such

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 03:21 PM 1/15/2004 +0000, gadog430@charter.net wrote:
>This is and has always been true. If you do what you love and what you 
>have a passion for you will end up happy and successful most of the time 
>because it is what you LOVE and have a PASSION for.

The problem comes in when there is a conflict between what you love doing 
and where you enjoy being. Most books of advice on finding the 'perfect' 
job assume that is your highest priority and will go where there are 
opportunities to do that work. My son took a job in CA doing the work he 
loves but is now eager to get back to the East coast to be near family (he 
isn't crazy about CA either) doing whatever he must to be where he wants to 
be. I made that same choice 30+ years ago. It helps to decide what's really 
important to you before going for that 'perfect' job. For some folks the 
best they can do under the circumstances dictated by their highest priority 
is more realistic.

There is another disconnect that hasn't been mentioned. About 20 years ago 
when I was experiencing some angst over the choice I had made I was 
re-exploring options to decide if I should make a change. In that process I 
was looking at the types of work that best suit different personalities. 
One of the things I learned was the 70% of the jobs match only 30% of the 
personalities in the US (and vice versa) so that the availability of work 
that matches your personality may not be there. Perhaps the most realistic 
route to 'happiness' is as Abraham Lincoln observed "Most people are as 
happy as they decide to be".

Saunterer