Work, Career and Priorities

As I think more about what is important to me the word balance keeps coming up again and again.  And so I start to think about works' role in my life.  I believe that everyone places some importance on work, but we all have to find where that fits in our lives.  Is our job a career, or a job?  Do we get our fulfillment there and/or elsewhere?  Do we define ourselves by our job solely or are other roles we play in the world equally or more important?  How high a value do we put on doing good work, great work or getting the next promotion?  Are we motivated by money, challenging work, other perks or other things?  I'd say for each of us there will be a different answer to all of these questions.

For a long time I didn't ever think about these questions, I just went along with the popular opinion.  In most work settings this opinion has been that everyone is looking for the next promotion and will do anything they can to get it.  The assumption also was that work was ultra-important and other things were secondary.  At least this was the opinion of a couple of people I had for bosses.  And so I bought into that balance of life (please don't get me wrong here, I am not criticizing if that balance works, I am only exploring my own thoughts on the matter).  The thing is that that is all wrong for me.

I work so I can pay for other things; food, shelter, clothing, plane tickets, gasoline, toys, etc...  Work for me is really a means to an end and not an end in itself.  When I go along with the idea that work is the most important thing, I lose sight of the things I really value and forget what it is that makes me happy.  I have done this a lot in my life and living that way leads me to depression, or at least makes the depression worse.

On the flip side, I am very glad to be employed.  I currently have a job that I like reasonably well, it is generally interesting, has a good work environment and the people are great.  These are important things to me, because as much as work is a means to an end, it is an important means and it takes a lot of time and energy.  I care about doing a good job, I care about keeping my job etc... 

So going forward, does anything change?  I think when my job gets stressful or I get anxious about it, or start to feel depressed about it, remembering it's place in my values will be critical.  I don't think it really changes anything in my day to day, but it does mean paying better attention to where I put all my energy.  For me it means leaving work at work and outside of work time focusing on the other things in my  life that are important, instead of letting work become all consuming.  It also means that if I can't do this in the job I have at any given time, then I need to consider if that job is right for me.