But truly, I want to expand on the phrase “make a living”. I mean, I believe we all have many callings and I believe work is meant to sustain us, not just monetarily.
I’m a mild-mannered person, at surface level, but this is my space to be controversial and wild, as I am at heart, so bare with me.
I’ve tried all the ways to make a living while maintaining a sense of emotional homeostasis and frankly it’s not been easy. That’s why I’ve tried so many things. Maybe my childhood idealism never fully died and frankly, I’m proud of that.
This is not to say that I think everything we have to do must be spiritually fulfilling and devotional. I’ve tried that when I took this really fun spiritual vow of poverty, that was enlightening, while also lasting too long and really, eventually sucking. This is not surprising.
However, I do think we need to really consider our whole selves when we make big decisions, like how we’re going to make a living. And there are stages to this. There are mistakes that must be made if you’re going to be truly informed on your decisions. You have to start somewhere.
So there’s a first job, there’s a career-oriented hobby, there’s a concentration or major in school, there may be courses, apprenticeships, mentorships, internships, special training courses, etc.
There’s where to live even, sometimes. There can be where to start. How to present yourself. Even down to your hair style, more so for some of us than others. And don’t forget, you may need to arrange your family life around your professional life. Such as, when to have children, how many to have, whether to stay home with them, or put them in childcare, and for how long.
In other words, this stuff is really complicated and yet, there is little guidance, at least officially on how to make these tough decisions. Are we engaged in mass tough love as a culture, or are we secretly sabotaging each other out of a scarcity mindset? I obviously don’t know why things are this way, but this is my own nagging focus. I want to encourage a culture where making a living is not counter intuitive to actually having satisfaction in life.
I want to find those stories, the people, career fields, the communities, the companies (if they exist) and of course the practices that encourage this! I’m even open to fiction and poems that carry this energy. If you know of anything I should be reading or anyone I should contact to dive deeper, let me know.
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