"Ironically, if I would maintain my current workload I most likely would be sacrificing my children on the altar of "doing." The hours we spend at work each week (even if it is a job that we truly enjoy) obviously are more than the hours we actually spend with our families right? In fact, even when we are home away from our workplace, often we are still at work solving some type of problem. The problem of our age is that often never leave work - our computers now fit in our pockets and tell us what to do hour by hour."
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Lament
Garth was recently lamenting his work schedule and asking some tough questions about purpose:
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2 comments:
The cool thing about lament - is that eventually (hopefully) you respond to it and even adapt.
Another way of looking at it is - when you first get married or first get a job - you are in a normal state or season of orientation. You are in a space of well-being. All is good or so it seems at the time. You are in summer mode - times are great and you feel joy!
But then your world gets shaken a little or maybe even a lot. You experience disorientation, your season of well-being has been disturbed and potentially in disarray! So you fall into lament, you may see no way out.
But then it happens (not always) - you see a way out...you take a step of faith and enter a new orientation. This state of well-being is a learned one, it has adapted to what you have gone through! Your new orientation is better than the old one! You've learned from adversity and gotten stronger. Your job has either changed or you've gotten a new one. Your marriage relationship has made it through some stormy waters but your passion has been renewed for each other, you trust each other more than ever before!
If your work is not fulfilling, it may be you are simply going through a season of disorientation, a time in which we need to adapt, evolve, or escape! There is always a way out - we are not as Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame states "rats in a cage." We may feel like at times, and those emotions are valid but there is always a way out!
G
I think you're exactly right, Garth. I found that my own lamenting in late summer seemed to have the desired effect, even though I didn't make any drastic changes. It just helped to think it through and realize that life has ups and downs. For me, the obvious insight was that I didn't have to expect so much from my work -- instead of viewing it as necessary self-actualization, I'm seeing it more as an enabler to the rest of my life. That doesn't mean that I'm not doing a good job, I'm just focusing less on always growing or fixing it...for now, at least.
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