Conversation: No life.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post
In a recent conversation with a person, I got to thinking about the phrase "I have no life" in terms of working at a job extensively vs. the concept that life = self free time.
"You work a lot," I said.
This person had a working schedule that would make me implode, since the jobs I've had always seemed to suck the life out of me and leave a kind of vacuum inside that made me wonder if I were just lazy or if it was even possible for anyone -- namely me -- to enjoy any paying job. More than one friend has expressed serious disillusion with their work, so I know I'm not alone.
The person nodded in agreement and jokingly replied. "Yeah, I work a lot. I have no life."
"I hope you enjoy your work," I replied.
"I do. I love my job."
"That's good," I said, rather blandly, but I was thinking that this person was so far ahead of most people that I could barely fathom it. Loved the job?
That's far more of a life than the average person working a job they disliked that made them try to overcompensate on both real off-the-clock time and the on-the-clock-but-wish-I-weren't time.
I would love to love a job. It would help cull some of the excessive restlessness inside, the constant push to find the next new opportunity that might be the job I could at least like. The truth in this case lies very close to the truth I am finally understanding about home and geography.
Home isn't geography. It isn't a specific geographical place. It's a fluid time, a compilation of moments, a sense of being where you are supposed to be, where you are safe and wanted. Home can be taken with you from place to place, on into the future, allowed to change, if the foundation was laid right. For too long I thought I had to be in a specific place to be home. That made moving on, and the passage of time and how it played out in people and buildings, a horrible thing. Once I released home from being locked to a place in geography, I could relax and just enjoy the compilation of memories.
And so, just as home isn't a place, I could love my work if I could finally get a handle on how it has nothing to do with the actual job.
I think.
If you love your job and you are constantly working, you have a life. It's those of us practicing truth-avoidance with a smile that have no life no matter how much time we call our own.
Labels: conversations, essay, personal, work
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 6/22/2008 11:04:00 PM
Like this post? Subscribe to the feed.
Help support this site.
Facebook |
Stumble It! |
Del.icio.us |
DiggIt! |
Technorati |
Blinklist |
Furl |
reddit |
Newsvine
1 Comments:
Have you ever gone through a "motivated abilities" analysis? I'm working through one with a group of men at church right now. It's called Your One Degree
The first step is to go through a list of abilities and roles and sort the things I'm capable of doing into those that energize me, those that suck the life out of me, and those that have neither effect.
Another part of the process is writing descriptions of accomplishments that you found especially satisfying, then you look for patterns -- the sorts of things you were working with, the sorts of roles you were playing.
The point is to identify and be a good steward of your unique, God-given design.
The only thing that bugs me about it is that the leader uses "learn" as a noun when he means "lesson," as in, "That was a big learn for me," when he means, "I learned an important lesson." That notwithstanding, I think this will be a valuable process.
By 
Michael Bates, at
25/6/08 21:32
