Paying the bills

[Pike]

It just recently occurred to me. Too often, I identify with whatever occupation I am in that pays me a salary. During smalltalk, if one were to ask me, "So, what do you do?", I'd begin to describe my job.

How boring.

I'd describe the things I do for someone else, in order to pay the bills. Instead of describing myself, who I really am and what I really am passionate about.

Has anyone else been caught in that trap?

Working in a job one is not passionate about, whilst constantly identifying with said job as a matter of habit... I'll invoke Steve's famous descriptors "incongruent" and "unconscious" for those. I'm guessing that's also a self-fulfilling system to keep one stuck in place.

[richie]

Forget about people. Ask yourself what you should do ? What you want your Identity to be ? and you would definately get a better answer.
If you dont like your Identity, change it.

[silicon toad2000]

I have managed to stay pretty clear of boxing myself in with what i do. I downplay it a bit and people generally move on pretty quickly unless they are particularly interested in my opinion on something related.
If I wanted to big note myself I would tell people that I am 2IC of a 20 million dollar national company. More often than not I tell people that I am just an accountant. That way opportunities arise to talk about other things. I'm most often know as that guy who (insert any part of my life here).

[Pike]

Thanks for the comments and the recommendation. I'm actually fairly content (if not passionate/driven) in my post at the moment. It does pay the bills, after all, and I am applying and learning transferable skills. However, I'm in the process of re-orienting my fundamental views on money, work and the like.

I really need to do some homework before I start to even think about moving on. Rather than move away from something, I'd prefer to move toward something. Time was I defined my world by what I hated, and in retrospect, took up job posts as a means to escape wherever I was at the time. When one does that, in my experience, one is not in a position to move on and grow in any meaningful and sustainable way.

Originally Posted by richie

Forget about people.

Good call. If I allow the opinions of others to dominate my thoughts, I am forever their prisoner. (I think I read that in Tao Te Ching.)

...Have I said yet that this forum rocks? 'Cause this forum, it rocks.