Do you love your day job? I don't. I like it, yes, but I don't love it. Huge difference. I can honestly say that I've never loved any of my jobs. I've liked almost all of them (well, except for when I had to get up early during summer vacation and go through the bean fields on our farm and chop out the weeds. Not my idea of a fun time!).
So I got to thinking tonight. I spend the majority of my life at the day job. Shouldn't I love it? Granted, a lot of people look at it differently. They see the day job as a means to an end - the money they earn gives them the opportunity to buy a house, buy groceries, take the trip to Jamaica, etc.
Sometimes I wish this was my day job:
So I got to thinking tonight. I spend the majority of my life at the day job. Shouldn't I love it? Granted, a lot of people look at it differently. They see the day job as a means to an end - the money they earn gives them the opportunity to buy a house, buy groceries, take the trip to Jamaica, etc.
Sometimes I wish this was my day job:
Then I could stay up all night writing! This job doesn't look too bad either...
Now this one really looks like the life!
(I snapped this picture just before hubby growled at her to get off the table!)
If someone called me tomorrow and said, "I'm offering you your dream day job. Just tell me what it is and I'll make it happen"...I would, of course, say, "Full-time novelist." And then I would realize that if I never left the house and buried myself in my office writing, not only would I succumb to the sweet lure of bags and bags of chocolate, but I would also become so depressed that I would write nothing but bad poetry. I need to be around people part of the time. It's taken me awhile to realize this, but better now than later.
So if I had my choice of my perfect part-time job, what would it be? And my answer right now? Good question! I am such an independent person that working for other people is sometimes very challenging.
I think this is what I would do: I'd take people on historical tours of Europe. I once aspired to be a travel guide, but somehow that got lost along the way. And, of course, this job would just double as research for my novels!
What about you? What is your perfect dream job?
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I have my dream job. I'm writing full time.
ReplyDeleteNo more day job for me.
I don't like working for other people.
However, before this, when I worked in theatre, film, and television, THAT was my dream job AND my "day" job (although most of it was nights).
And I passionately, passionately loved it.
When I stopped loving it, I changed careers.
Life's too short to work at what you don't LOVE.
Writing full time would be my dream job. The only complaint I have about my current day job is that it's not writing full time. But -- we do have a plan. For a while now, we've been working at paying down the mortgage. We have no kids left at home and no bills except the mortgage and once that's either paid off, or at a small enough principle amount that we can do it, I plan to find a part time job with benefits and focus on writing. The isolation doesn't bother me. I telecommute so I don't see anyone but Scott and the UPS man on most days. If I didn't have an innate fear of being poor again, I'd probably have quit my day job and followed my dream already. I find my plan motivates me and the premise of the plan is that it isn't contingent on writing generating an income. Good thing!
ReplyDeletePS I don't find that writing full time is isolating unless I CHOOSE it to be isolating.
ReplyDeleteI get to pick and choose when and where to hang out with my friends (provided I meet my deadlines). I travel a LOT. I do research, onsite interviews, in person stuff.
It's given me opportunities to meet dozens of people in fields I'd never get to know if I was in someone else's cubicle on someone else's schedule.
My perfect dream job would be to write full time from 7 - noon and then work as a home stager or interior decorator in the afternoons.
ReplyDeleteI've pulled back a bit on the writing reins in order to start pursuing my dream job (a counselor). Thus I've gone back to university via long distance -- isn't technology fabulous?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Devon -- life is too short to be stuck doing something you don't love.
Research consultant. Yep, that's what I'd love to do - act as a research consultant for fellow writers or anyone else interested in learning how to do research. I don't mean just researching FOR people, but teaching them HOW to do it themselves.
ReplyDeleteI also meant to say - cute pics of your cats!!! Yours look like mine, quite brazen when it comes to forbidden behaviour. They get away with it cause they're so darned cute - LOL!
ReplyDeleteI'd write, but not at home. I'd have enough money for one of those huge diesel pusher type RVs ans I'd travel writing by mountain streams one day. The hustle and bustle of a big city the next. Amid the golden fields of the midwest. along a sandy beach another.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course there would be rum.
Devon - You're absolutely right. Life is too short not to do what you love. So that is my hope - to hopefully get to the point where I can cut down to part time. That's the goal, anyway!
ReplyDeleteLisa, what a great plan! And it is SO COOL that you and Scott are working on it together. I think my hubby is a little scared about the prospect of me working part-time, even though it's a ways off.
Kelly, you'll have to help me decorate my house, then! I find I can't coordinate things as well as I'd like when it comes to home decor. ;-)
Meretta, GOOD FOR YOU! I am proud of you for going back to school to be able to do what you've always wanted. You GO, girl!
Tess, I can totally see you being a research consultant. You would be awesome at it! (And yeah, my kitties are pretty darn cute...LOL)
Travis, what a great idea - to be able to see the country and write wherever you want. Just don't drink the rum while you're driving. ;-)