What work would you do if you could do anything you wanted?
A lot of us are working at jobs out of necessity, or at jobs that ‘happened’ to us rather than being our preferred choice. And often people get stuck doing things that pay the bills, etc and our dreams (and dream jobs) end up left by the wayside.
But here is our chance to either remember those dreams or create new ones.
You often read about people winning millions in the lottery and their lives totally fall apart as they try behaving like stereotypical millionaires, simply buying MORE STUFF and sinking into a life of leisure that leaves them feeling empty and unsatisfied.
You see, I’ve always thought that having satisfying personal work is a basic need for all of us. Quite different from what most jobs end up being. I know one or two people whose jobs are exactly what they want to be doing every single morning when they get out of bed and it’s hard not to envy them a bit.
So, what sort of work would you be doing if you could do anything you wanted to? No limits in terms of Reality … what is the thing you would want to do every morning when you get up that would give you the most personal satisfaction?
casa azahar 
I’m not sure I have one absolutely ideal occupation. But I can give you a short list of the top three things I would rather be doing than what I am now.
*botanical illustrator – I do actually draw and paint well enough to do this one
*historian/archaeologist specializing in either Precolombian Mezoamerica or Roman Britain
*mystery novelist
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When I was a child my main obsession was drawing-drawing-drawing … couldn’t stop myself. And with all that practice I actually got very good at it. When I was 14 I begged my parents to send me to the Ontario College of Art that offered highschool programmes, meaning it was a basic highschool curriculum that focussed on art. But the parents said – no way, can’t afford it.
I left home a year later.
I also stopped drawing. What was the point? Had to pay rent working part-time jobs to get through the rest of highschool and all that – somehow just couldn’t deal with the idea of being a ‘highschool drop out’ you know?
But my first dream was always to be an artist, even though I had no real idea what that meant, I just felt that’s what I was.
Later on I switched that creative urge over to designing clothes … went to a design college in Toronto that was keen on me spending the first year learning how to thread a sewing machine and sew a straight seam, even though I’d been doing that for ten years already. I went to the department head to ask if I could be put into the second year and was refused … and then my grant money ran out.
Much later on, when I got to about 40, I decided (mistakenly or otherwise) that I could WRITE and wrote that first novel …
So I no longer wish I’d become an artist – after finding out how ridiculous that whole crazy biz is.
And I have never wanted to be a *fashion designer*, especially after many years working in that particular biz in Toronto – it’s soooo full of shit. But this didn’t stop me from starting a clothing biz last spring because I do love fabrics and designing stuff.
These days I think I’d be happiest either doing that clothing biz thang or else writing. Though creating clothes that others might like feels a lot less personally scary than creating words others might want to read.
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I am one of the lucky ones who does do exactly what she wants to do for a living. When I was going to college, studying music and premed and planning on going to medical school, I found myself to be a very popular person after orchestra concerts because when we gave each other back rubs, people found that their muscles invariably unwound under my hands. All through my adult life, I have found myself doing bodywork on people and having them tell me I should do it for a living.
After a lot of job hopping (which is detailed on the “about” page in my blog), I was working as the secretary/receptionist for a property management company and feeling like I never had enough time to work in my garden. I knew that even though I was REALLY good at it, I truly despised answering the phone and filing and making copies and writing letters, and all the other bs that goes on in an office job. I started fantasizing about what I could do that would satisfy me and also allow me to have as much time for my gardening as I wanted. I looked into getting a massage certification, and found out it was well within our means, and had the potential of providing me with a good income and lots of flexibility.
I have been doing it ever since. There were a few lean years there when I was building up my practice, but it has been a wonderful line of work that satisfies my most inner soul. I realize that this is not only what I love to do, it was what I was born to do. Yes, I have some musical ability, but my true talent is to understand and communicate with tissue. I have an uncanny and almost scary ability to “see” what is going on inside people, and thus be able to help it heal.
I wish for all people to find the work they love. Whenever I meet someone young or old who is struggling in a morass of despair doing work they hate, I tell them: “Find out what it is you love to do. Start doing it, and the money will come.”
Is it better to be solvent and miserable, or poor and ecstatic doing what you love?
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Sorry about that last posting- I’ve written three replies and none of them have posted!
As a child, my dream job was to be a teacher. Once I got to high school and colege, I wanted to work in radio production. I studied radio in school, but by the time I graduated, things were changing from analog to digital and going back to school wasn’t a feasible option.
At this point in my life, I’d say that if I could anything I wanted, with salary not an issue, I’d like to work in anthropology somehow. But not archaeology- I don’t want to dig around in the dirt and stuff like that.
I don’t hate my current job, though. While my dream was certainly not to work in accounting at a real estate company, the work’s not so bad, and most of the people I work with are all right. As much as I would be willing to sacrifice potential financial “wealth”- I’d rather have free time to have fun than a shitload of money and nothing to do with it- a person still needs to eat. So things could be worse!
You know, when I was really young, my parents were so amazed at this innate ability I had to situate things symmetrically and stuff like that, without using a tape measure or level, that they actually encouraged me to become an interior designer or architect. As cool as that might have been, they weren’t paying for my education, so I went the radio route. Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve listened to them?
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You can kill my first two posts and leave this last one.
The only thing I can think of, glitchwise, was that I think I posted the other two as replies through Bloglines and this time I came directly to your Blog. Maybe Bloglines is having “issues” today or something?
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I did delete those first two comments, as requested, PC – the problem was the comments going into SPAM. Including my own comment 2, which I tried to post several times until I found out it was sitting in the SPAM file. Weird.
Not sure what’s going on but if anyone else sees their comments aren’t showing up on this post just wait till I can check the SPAM file – very strange …
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I don’t think I could write a book, but to work in a library, or a bookshop – or better still, to own my own bookshop – heaven
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I’ve mentioned this already on hootoo…I once saw a tellything about sheep farming in which sheep were being transported by boat to be grazed on a remote island. Instead of landing, the farmer was picking up the sheep and lobbing them into the sea to swim ashore.
‘That’s what I want to be,” I thought, “The guy that throws sheep off boats.”
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I am sort of in my dream job. I worked long and hard to get where I am on my own terms and it’s quite enjoyable to be the expert that I am without having to go thorugh someone else’s idea of the proper path.
It’s not ideal, but it is a constant challenge, which is what I really need to be happy. I’m quite lucky to have the luck that I have that allows to me work in my industry.
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At the moment, my dream job is pretty much definable as ‘anything except my last job’. In more rational moments, I’m more likely to say something about books and bookshops.
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I don´t know how to put this in proper English… I like my job, but not my work as in the place where I´m doing it. The trouble is that there are very few similar positions available in my country. Vacancies usually mean that the hospital offering them is not functional.
Going abroad could be an option. I´ve had offerings from UK and Australia. Since all kids, apart from the 19 y o, have left the lair it´s easier now go abroad. My failing health sort of restrain me though. Insurances are not easy to get when you´re considered to be “high-risk”.
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