MAKING A LIVING
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know it when you find it."
Uh – easy for Steve to say. He was passionate about a job that paid him really well. Is that possible for all of us? What if there are multiple options and all of them look pretty good (or worse, all of them look somewhat bad.) And does my work need to be great ? How about good enough?
Have I screwed up my kids by not being a stay-at-home mom? Do I care too much about my career? Is there ever work/life balance?
I like the quote below better since Confucius makes no demands on the quality of my work. I put enough demands on myself.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." ~ Confucius
Freelancer: Proactive flexible work or slutty "I'm just a girl who can't say no" semi-prostitution
Maddie McDowell
Something’s gotta give, right? To create enough space in my life to try this writing thing, I gave up a pretty big director-level corporate job. That was a scary decision for me. I've been working full-time since I graduated from college 763 years ago. I define myself by my career. I got a pointy-headed advanced degree for my career. For a few years, I traveled 5 days a week for my career. I postponed kids until I only had two ancient eggs left because of my career.
My husband, Galahad (shockingly, not his real name), and I had lots of discussions about this. We have been married for over 25 years. Since we were DINKs for 13 years before we procreated, our finances are in pretty good shape. The house and cars are paid for and we carry no debt. Galahad has a good job with a large tech company. It’s all roses, right? Why in the hell am I even worried? I should be sitting on a couch with nubile beauties fanning me and offering me peeled grapes.
Except … there’s that retirement thing. Those savings were a little...
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