Tell me about yourself.

[resonant]

I'm suddenly struck with the desire to know how other people do the things that matter most to them, how they find and follow their passions.

How do you decide where your heart is? How do you carve out time and energy to pursue it?

Are you on a new road or one you've been following for a long time? What have you learned that could help others? What false starts have you made, what poor judgments? What have you compromised, and what do those compromises look like to you now?

Comments

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

I am an observatory. *g*

For me, the best part of life is who you share it with. Family, friends, whoever--someone to turn to who'll see the same humor in a situation that you do, who'll get the stories you tell, who sees the same beauty in the everyday. Connections with other people are what it's all about. And I've had some very worthy-feeling jobs (police dispatcher, working with low-income mentally ill, environmental testing) and some less worthy (restaurant management, call-center CS), but nothing has made me feel as accomplished and grateful as the opportunity to raise two wonderful people who already have and will continue to work in their own right to make the world a better place. My spiritual goals, also, my work in ministry and ongoing struggle towards spiritual growth, are central to my feeling fulfilled.

Career-wise, I've pretty much felt that anything I didn't hate having to go and do every day was okay. My husband took the career path while I put mine on hold (not that I actually had one, when we married) so that I could be more available for the children. Any job that I felt was more worthwhile in a good-for-the-community-and-the-world way felt better than those that weren't, and any job where my skills and abilities were more utilized and recognized felt better than those where they weren't (my present job SO fails in both respects, though it allows me to keep working while ill), but jobs have been fairly low in the prioritizing of my life, up to this point. Now that I'm not so bounded by the needs of my children, I'm thinking seriously about finishing the psychology half of my double major, going on for the MSW and going into counseling, which was always more my dream than the business side. That would be an adventure, and would be fulfilling in that giving-back way, but whether I do that or not, I feel like I have everything in place already that I need to feel complete, and always have--love, humor, beauty, fun, learning, all the good stuff is available no matter what I'm doing (and, of course, everything goes better with money to pay the bills.) And I love that I don't know what's coming next. Half the fun is finding out.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Any job that I felt was more worthwhile in a good-for-the-community-and-the-world way felt better than those that weren't, and any job where my skills and abilities were more utilized and recognized felt better than those where they weren't

This is the sort of thing I've learned from reading a book called Do What You Are, which actually even has exercises to help you make a list of these characteristics. But, see, my most recent job, as a technical writer, was a thing I didn't even know existed until I fell into it by accident (because I took a graphic design class and struck up a conversation with the instructor), and I can't help wondering how much other stuff is out there that I don't know about.

I love that I don't know what's coming next. Half the fun is finding out.

Boy, I wish I were like this, but I so totally am not.