When we reach high school, we get a little more specific, because we are about to go off to college, or technical school, and we need to pick a major area of study: chemist, physical therapist, chef, plumber. We may change our answer a number of times (those of us who were on the 10 year college plan, haha!)
But then when we graduate, we need a much more definite answer… environmental chemist, high school Spanish teacher. Some of us know exactly what we want to be at this point, but others have a general idea, but are open to trying whatever job comes up that they have the ability to do.
I have been thinking about a lot lately about the original question. I have had a lot of answers throughout the past 34 years:
• Astronaut
• Artist
• Waitress
• Physical therapist
• Meteorologist
• Fashion designer/seamstress
• Environmental chemist
• Baker/chef/caterer
• Self-sufficient farmer
• Wife and Mother
• Homemaker
• Therapist
• Teacher
• Nurse
• Architect
• Plumber/carpenter/electrician
The list could go on and on…
And I have been considering these items. What do I have the ability to do? What might I need more schooling for? Which would satisfy my inner need to do something I believe in?
Well, as usual, God was quite timely with His help. Two days ago, when I had just gotten over being really down on myself for not doing anything lately with my plan, I was sifting through my email. I happened to open a message about clubs/activities in the Philadelphia area. This is not something I do often, open these types of messages, but God led me to do this on that day. There was an announcement about a free teleconference for women about this very question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” It would be given Tuesday night. All you need to do is call in. A recording of the talk would also be sent within 24 hours. I understood this talk was to be given by a life coach in an effort to drum up some business. But I thought “What have I got to lose? An hour? You have lots of extra time!”
I actually waited until today to listen to the recording. It was very good, and she brought up a lot of excellent points. However, one of her main points was that we are asking the wrong question, or, more specifically, we need to think about the question differently.
Thinking of what we want to be is actually self-sabotaging. It is setting ourselves up for failure. Basically, when we understand it this way, we are actually asking what we aren’t. While it’s very good at certain points in our life to make goals, if we always ask it this way, we are never going to be able to live up to those expectations!
Another way to think about is to ask, “What do you want your life to be about?” The "be" here is more about how you want to live your life, the way you want to move through the world. You take into account the inner qualities you already possess (creativity, humor, honesty), and apply it to want you are already doing.
The speaker told us about a TV show she watched recently, “Undercover Boss,” I think it was. The CEO accompanies one of the employees on the job for a day, but the boss is undercover, so the employee is unaware that this person is the CEO. This episode was about a man who cleaned out port-a-johns, or spot-a-pots, whatever you want to call them, daily! At first thought, we are like, “Wow, that’s one of the worse jobs possible!” But what the employee said was that he is very happy to do it, because it is a very necessary task. He likes to hike in the woods a lot, and he understands how pleasant it is to come upon a well-maintained outhouse.
Well, readers, when I thought about this, I completely understood. I like spending time out on hiking trails, and, yes, often need to use an outhouse. Trust me, there is a huge difference between a well-maintained versus a dirty outhouse!
Hearing this story made me think that this job was not so bad after all, in fact I don’t think I would mind it at all!
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