adamdmills said about 4 months ago or at 2:59PM on Wednesday, July 9 2008.
is what you're doing with your life - working in an office, being unemployed, whatever - what you want to be doing with the rest of your life?
if not, are you actively working towards a different goal, or just treading water, waiting for your ship to come?
i started thinking about this after seeing the simpsons episode where they get a pool for about the billionth time: ''look, question lady, this job is not what i really do. i play keyboards.''
do you play keyboards? or do you sell pools?
(sorry if some version of this thread has been done before.)
slacking off, posting on messandnoise: tick!
why in god's name should a life be 'set and forget'?
start one thing and just stick with that? that's retarded.
i'm resigned to working in an office for the rest of my life.
no no no no no no no no
i hate what i do. i despise it. it makes me want to not live any longer.
is that an answer for you?
it pays the bills I guess.
i really like my job but not my employer. at the moment i am just biding my time until i go overseas again and i will work on finding a similar job with a different company when i get back.
i don't want to do it for the rest of my life though. i want to be self employed eventually.
am I working towards something else? yes, but i have no delusions that THIS isn't what I'll ultimately end up doing until age 65.
that's not really the point. i'm asking if what you're doing now is something you want to do, a step towards something you want to do, or a complete diversion while you wait for a big, fat opportunity to drop into your lap?
short answer: no
i'm enjoying having a steady office job for the moment, after long spells of unemployment and bumming around the house. i'll stay here for a while. some stability could do me good.
yep, this is what i want to do. it's taken 18 years of diverse employment to discover where my skills are best utilised. and i have never been happier.
now to sort out the rest of my life as well.
long answer, mcgauz?
kinda, yeah, i'm not working..i have the time to work on the things i promised myself i'd get done (when i'm not procrastinating like a mofo).. i'm studying something that interests me and will certainly continue to interest me once i've graduated..and will be happy working in that field.
SCORE!
Right now, kinda. Generally speaking, nope.
i'm beginning to think you're in the minority, slacks.
is it bad of me not to have any work aspirations; i am only in my early 20's? flot i don't care what i do as long as i have enough money to keep body and mind seperate
what if it's none of the above?
waiting for anything (opportunity, love etc) is for chumps. you gotta make shit happen.
i think plenty of people tread water while they try to figure out what really makes them happy, which often has nothing whatever to do with their employment/self-sustaining activity.
not particularly. i'd like to think i'm working towards something but i don't have set goals. not to say that i'm not ambitious, just think my ideal situation is maybe a bit too awesome for reality.
I've got a big list of things I want to do, done a couple of them, currently working on another whilst working towards the next thing on the list. So to answer the question, yep!
I'm working towards it, getting experiance a film production company so I can then start my own...i am enjoying life
jesus christ, nicko, you don't have to be so argumentative all the time.
if it's none of the above, then what is it? you tell me.
i'm asking questions, not offering answers.
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Q are you doing what you want to do?
A yes i am, although the stuff I've been doing over the last 10-ish years has been what I've wanted to do, and that's a variety of things including casually working, studying, not working at all, working all the time & traveling. I've considered none of it backpeddling or treading water. I'm a patient person, who hates wasting time. whenever fruition of future plans has taken time, I've needed to devote equal motivation for my present-day projects, rather than elevating the everyday or justifying the inane. everybody goes through times when they aren't especially satisfied with what they've got or what they're doing, but I think it's important to seek fulfillment rather than wait for fulfillment to come to me.
i have an interview today for a job i don't really want, but i need it to pay the bills.
that said, in many ways i'm closer to happiness than i've been in a long time.
i like what shhh said about balance. i've never managed to get it right - at the moment, i'm in suffocating amounts of debt because for the past two years my life has been tilted towards the ''poor but happy'' side of things. ''ah, fuck it - who cares how much credit card debt i rack up? i want to spend hundreds of dollars on records a week, i want to spend three times as much money on rent as anybody i know so that i don't have to share my bathroom with other humans, i want to buy an expensive fishtank and have a nice car and all these other ridiculous luxuries.''
that drove me to the poorhouse. fast.
now, having uprooted my entire life and moved to a house in the country with a girl i love very, very much, achieving that balance - making enough money to live comfortably without grinding my fingers to the bone and ending up more depressed and angry than usual - actually feels like a possibility.
Noone would be here if everybody was totally engrossed in what they did for a living.
nah, i don't believe that at all.
sort of
yeah (with a touch of sort of) only because I'd like to tour soon. (next year) and France! and Spain for next winter definately...I need mediteranean climate.
Neither do I. Everyone, including people who love their work, needs an outlet for stress/silliness and M&N provides one.
does anyone else think that happiness is an unattainable goal in life?
I mean, most of the time I'm not really happy about much, I have an appreciation and feel lucky for the people I know and things I have in life but is this just a different way of being happy?
I don't really believe in the idea of being truly happy about anything. I have moments of satisfaction, accomplishment, appreciation, but those quickly vanish before I become fixated on something else I feel the need to do.
my life at present is as close to perfect as it's ever been.
my job's not the most exciting thing in the universe, but my job isn't me. i have a wonderful relationship, i live in a house i adore with a housemate who's rad, my family's great, my friends are tops, i'm earning good money, i'm healthy and i don't want for anything.
a very very shitty time 18 months ago lead to me paring my life right back to basics and i've come out of it a much happier, calmer and more peaceful person.
i have no idea still what i want to 'do', but i do think that i now have the emotional capacity to direct myself at anything i decide i want to do and make it happen.
yeah...from where I'm sitting anyway
happiness comes from your perception of situations not the situation you are in.
it's the whole glass half-full or half-empty blah blah crap.
sure, a level of material comfort can make things less difficult but it won't make you happy.
The happiest I have ever been was when I was living out of home, studying honours with 8 hour exams every 8 weeks, no austudy and earning $120 a week (lucky rent was only $70 back then, huh? Mind you the place was a hovel and we had a bucket bong permanently set up in the sink by the back door).
I would also like to say, that posting in this thread has provided me with some lovely opportunities. so YAY.
60% time doing exactly what I want. 40% the compromise that allows me to do it, which really isn’t that bad. Aiming slowing increase the percentage of the former over the next few years. In any case, my life is pretty good and I have very little to moan about.
*Aiming to slowly increase
Yeah, my work is ok...I share an office with my best mate and we have things running pretty smoothly so the job is never really too stressful. I get to listen to whatever music I want as well which is good.
I do enjoy my job but I hate having to speak to fucking moronic clients from time to time.
I've always been about work to live, not live to work anyway so as long as I'm happy outside of working hours that is all that really matters to me.
I am probably the happiest I have ever been in my life right now.
Cool beans.
does anyone else think that happiness is an unattainable goal in life?
no, not at all.
happiness means different things to different people and is perception/expectation based.
there may be parts of life that i'm not 100% content with, but ultimately, when i look at the things like family/friends/job etc, i am the happiest person in the world.
my little girl making me breakfast this morning was one of the happiest moments ever. especially when it was served with a cuddle.
happiness doesn't have to be about anything but small moments like that.
ramble ramble.
Gennerally, I agree 100% with what sveltes just said.
As far as work/career goes though.....I'm not doing what I want to do, at all. Time for a change. MrsSmoke is earning great money now, that gives me some freedom to try something new without fear of needing my current salary level. Now....if only I had some guts/balls to really give something new a go.
I had a conversation about this with someone recently and they really struggled with the concept that someone could be truly happy.
I find that odd.
i don't think happiness is unattainable, it is perhaps hard to hold on to or perhaps maintain, but it's not unattainable
Straps - it seemed like a big step at the time and i was very nervous about stepping out into the unknown.. but looking back it wasn't really a big deal at all. if it doesn't work out, just move on to something else. there is plenty of opportunities out there for a smart , energetic girl like you, just go for it. even if your first career change doesn't work, just move on til you find something that works for you.
this is a good thread. at the end of the day, as others have said - work is work . it shouldn't rule your life. the old work / life balance thing...
i used to take work home with me, i was majorly stressed to the point that it affected my health, my sleep etc.... no good. these days my work is rewarding, i can see the results of my work at the end of the day, it gives me a sense of purpose / pride.. but when i go home at the end of the day, i don't even think about work at all.
in fact i could have just cut and pasted most of louis's post . that's pretty much exactly where i'm at as well. what with the paring life down to the basics and all that... good stuff . louis.
when i look back it's amazing how you get caught up and stressed out with unimportant, trivial things. and take on other peoples problems etc.... learning to say ''no'' is such an important skill to learn!!!
LockingPlier said 5 hours ago: does anyone else think that happiness is an unattainable goal in life?
I had a conversation about this with someone recently and they really struggled with the concept that someone could be truly happy.
I find that odd.
Yeah, I've had this conversation with heaps of people over the years. With me finding it kind of odd too.
I think a lot of it comes down to expectations. It’s possible to have a steady undercurrent of happiness about your life that remains intact even when you get stressed or upset about things going wrong, as they inevitably do. If the expectation is that in order to be happy everything must be a certain way, then you’re never going to be happy.
I'm really happy for the first time in years, even though I'm currently unemployed. I'm not at all stressed about work and am happy to wait until another job comes along. I figure I've managed to land on my feet before and it will be no different this time. I have a fantastic partner, a house with ace housemates, fun part time work to keep me fed, good friends and so many grand opportunites and adventues up ahead.
satisfied smile