I’m sorry… my what? I know that there are some really organised, together people in the world who know exactly what they want to do with their lives and set about getting there in focused and efficient manner. I’ve never really been one of those people. I’ve never had a single career goal. What do you want to be when you grow up? Worst question ever. There is no simple, coherent, neatly packaged answer. Life is messy. It catches you unawares. It takes unexpected twists and turns. Contrary to some beliefs, you can’t manipulate the world to your will. If you try to do this you turn into my Grandmother. Unhappy… because the world doesn’t do what she believes it should. But Wendy, I hear you say (or not…up to you whether you speak aloud when reading blog posts)..But Wendy…surely you have some aspirations, some goals for your life, your work. Well upon some reflection I guess I do. Here are some of them. 1. I want my actions and my value-system to align in my daily life. 2. I don’t want to purposely cause harm to the people around me. 3. I want to leave the world in a better state than when I found it. 4. I want to see others fulfil their potential whatever their field of endeavour 5. I want to laugh every day 6. I don’t want to be afraid to cry. 7. I want to live a healthy life…with sometimes a little bit of cake here and there. 8. I want to cherish my own arts practice and the creative practice of others. 9. I want to think critically and carefully about the world. 10. I want to live in a country that values compassion So I’m not sure what that means in terms of growing up and writing a career goal. Am I naive and idealistic? Of course. Will I ever know what I want to be when I grow up? Probably not. But I sure have a fair idea of the person I don’t want to be. Perhaps that’s the most we can expect from anyone.
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Thank you Wendy! “Life is Messy. It catches you unawares.” Love it. That is my life.
🙂 I’m glad you liked it!
Bravo!
The big problem with the whole “career goal” thing is that the future is so uncertain. Jobs that were once a safe bet are now extinct, or heading that way, or evolving into altogether different things, and there are whole industries that weren’t around 10 years ago. How are you supposed to have a goal for the rest of your life in that sort of environment?
Plus, for me anyway, there’s a lot of should-do-versus-want-to-do involved. I feel I should be working harder and making a name for myself with the freelance journalism thing, but between the legal stuff and hustle involved and the expectation that you’ll write for free (sorry, “exposure”) and also be an illustrator, photographer, designer, coder and ad salesman… I’d rather just stick to my gentle little part time job and spend some time with my folks while I still can. And sod having a “career”.
I hear you loud and clear. I’m keen to have a job I enjoy – that is a challenge and opens up new opportunities…but I’m not keen enough to work for free…and I actually think making a name for oneself is a bit over-rated if it involves shoving my ego in people’s faces whether they like it or not. Quality of life is SO important. 🙂
Your “career goals” resonated with me. Why is there an expectation that we are all focused on the progression upwards, aiming for more responsibility, management or whatever. Personally what I require from a job is that it matches my skills and personality, that I am challenged daily, that I have the opportunity to learn, that I enjoy it, and that it allows me a good work-life balance. Thanks for helping me to reflect on what is really important in working life!
Hi Renee
I’m glad you liked the post. In the past I’ve worried that I didn’t have enough ambition in terms of my so-called career but as I’ve got older ( and maybe a little bit wiser) I’ve decided that ambition for ambition’s sake isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s nice to have time to reflect on these things isn’t it? 🙂
[…] a recent Spiralling Shape blog post, Wendy Davis says “Life is messy”, “It catches you unawares”. This […]