Put another way; “what do you want to do professionally”, or “what do you want to do to sustain a certain level of comfort and lifestyle”.
Well…I’m not married, I don’t have kids, I’m not a homeowner, and I have no substantial debts. So what’s there to work for? Not a whole lot, at the moment.
Since my financial responsibilities are effectually inexistent, the question then becomes “what do you want to do with your time? What are your passions? What interests you? Why do you get out of bed in the morning?”
Should be an easy one, right? There is no simpler question than “what do you want”. And I’m really good at answering in the short term; I want to sit down, I want that chicken sandwich, I want the check, I want to remember where I parked. Easy.
The medium term gets a little tricky; I think I want to go hiking this weekend. I think I want a haircut every five or six weeks. I think I want a dog. Or maybe a cat. Or maybe a moped.
But push it to the long term and I’m completely lost. I don’t know where I want to be in a year, or five years, or even six months for that matter. I don’t know how or where to spend the rest of my life. My LIFE. MY GODDAM LIFE. Which is a cryin’ shame because I only have one of those, and I can’t pause it to think, or rewind it or start all over.
By not having long-term goals, any short or medium ones I do have aren’t building towards anything. Duh.
So after a bit of thinking, here’s what I know: I want at least the basic necessities, and for me that includes pocket money for movies and restaurants now and again. I want to be liked, by myself and by most of the people that know me. And I want to enjoy and be good at what I do.
If those are the long-term goals, I think there are two possible ways of getting there. The first is by considering work simply a means to an end. “I do what I have to so I can go home and be happy”. The second is not partitioning work from the rest. “If I’m not happy, fulfilled, and successful at work, then neither am I at life”. It occurs to me that, while the former seems to allow for a higher chance of becoming financially successful, being miserable for at least a third of my day is no way to live. On the other hand, either being totally satisfied or not is a lot of pressure, I think.
Here’s a Banksy
