Some days, you go to work and it just sucks. People leave you dumb messages on the phone. You have dozens of unread emails. Your boss micromanages. You’re in a meeting full of idiots. You spill coffee on your shirt. Your afternoon poop doesn’t exactly go according to plan. Still no update from dyingread. Who knows.
On days like this, I do what most of you probably do. I go to fastcompany or buzzfeed or thoughtcatalog or lifehacker or mashable or elitedaily and I look for inspiration.
What should I be doing with my life?
What kinds of growing career fields pay well?
How much is rent in say… New York?
…ok fine, how much is a trip to New York?
…ok well what if I put the plane ticket on credit and I can stay at my uncle’s house?
Where do I even begin to look for jobs?
Should I just start my own company?
I realized something sorta strange today. I was reading an article on thoughtcatalog and people were blasting some poor girl for saying that having kids after 35 is pretty tough. (Because let’s be honest, you can’t write anything on thoughtcatalog that doesn’t say “Have sex with everyone, be a feminist, or you’re in your 20s and that’s awesome!”)
I know we’re all Millennials and really want to make the Forbes 30 under 30 list and be “on that grind” and “bout dat life” and super busy and overly caffeinated and traveling the world while doing CrossFit and simultaneously showing all our friends we’ve made it, but I started thinking about my dad and my mom. And you know what makes my parents happy? Their kids. (Which means me. W00t.) Their family. Their friends. Our dog. Each other.
And then I started thinking about other people’s parents and I realized I don’t think I’ve met a single adult who finds their main source of happiness in their job. It’s always about kids, or family, or friends, or church, or book clubs, or hobbies… It’s never work.
In fact, when I start to think about anyone 35+, the last thing they want to talk about is work.
Which leads me to believe that maybe the whole “love your job” obsession that we’ve all so readily bought into is a little bit of a lie. Not in the sense that it’s impossible to find a job you enjoy, but moreso that your career will be the impetus to your satisfaction and happiness; the idea that you need to find your dream job to be happy.
Maybe relationships can actually give us more joy, and are more important to invest in than our careers.
Because your best day at work, where you have no messages and no emails, and your boss tells you how much they appreciate you, and you have an amazing, collaborative meeting that makes you love your coworkers, and you don’t spill anything on your clothes, and your afternoon poop is perfect, and dyingread posts something during the day…
Gets even better when you get to go home.
image by 8tracks.com
