How often are we asked this question when we meet people? For a long while, it used to annoy me – to me as it insinuated that we were what our jobs were.
And for me, my job felt – to be honest, pointless and boring.
Days on end I would watch the flow of paper in and through and out of the department. Don’t get me wrong, the products the company made were necessary – pipe fittings are always handy, but what I actually did – felt pointless. I felt like I was biding my time.
The question though – and how it made me feel probably says alot more about me than my answers that I gave. Which used to range from the flippant to the eccentric…
“What do you do?”
“- anything I please really!”
“- I am me”
“- I live!”
Anything other than answer the question as intended to be answered by the questionee.
When did this change?
In around and abut 2003 I became a Driving Instructor. At this stage, I had no problem telling people a straight answer to my question – “I’m a Driving Instructor”.
Maybe it was because it was slightly unexpected – the amount of people who responded with “Really? Wow, you must be patient to do that…” or similar was quite high.
But more to the point, I think it was because being a Driving Instructor, to me, felt like I was making a difference to people. Enabling independancy, to get a job otherwise unavailable to them, to enable them to take their children out for the day without having to wait for the weekend and another family member.
It was more congruant with what I felt at the time my life purpose was.
Congruancy, is a value that is extremely high on my list of core values!
Some people seem lost when choosing a career path. And in such situations, it may be suggested to them to “do what is their oxygen”, what gives them the most pleasure.
I’d say, along with this – look at your values. Determine what’s important on a base level, and that will give if not the full answer – certainly the place to start looking.
As much as it may feel the answers are eluding you, they are there. I promise!
What do I do now?
I am a coach, helper, enabler, a tour guide to your mind, and I help people to discover how fantastic and amazing they actually are.
So – if I may ask, what do you do?