My friend Erika posted a helpful article on her blog Practicing Writing, and it got me thinking about Day Jobs.
Many people love their jobs. They could be nurses or gardeners or accountants, but they trot off to work with a spring in their step and love spending the majority of their time every week earning that paycheck.
This is not what I’m talking about. A Day Job is a job you don’t have any passion for, but hey, it pays the bills.
My first full-time job was as a legal secretary when I was 19. It paid more than I’d ever earned before ($1300 a month), and I showed up in my skirts and hose to take phone messages, transcribe Dictaphone tapes, and work on a computer that had a black screen with yellow type and ran only one program. I was there Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 5:00, with an hour for lunch.
(Skirts and hose!)
I couldn’t care less about being a legal secretary, or even a lawyer, but I did it because it paid what for me then was a lot of money. I ended up working there two years, and overall it was a fine experience. (Except for having to dodge the partner who wrote me sexually suggestive letters, stared at me from his office, and kept trying to kiss me. That was not so fine.)
The job served its purpose, which was money. Money is very, very important.
So to earn money you have a Day Job, sure, and maybe you feel like you have a pretty good thing going. I mean, it could be a lot worse, right? You could be working in a slaughterhouse, for example. (Apologies if I've offended any slaughterhouse employee readers, though I'm guessing they’re over at www.sufferingandgore.com.)
So you slog through the days and figure you’ll hang on and cram your real life into the nights and weekends. The problem with that is that usually it’s not nearly enough time to do what you want to do, or better yet, to do what you should be doing, which is using your talents (because that’s usually what you’re passionate about) to the fullest. You’re operating at only quarter capacity.
It makes me want to cry when I see someone who’s too exhausted from his or her day job to ever get around to writing that novel or launching that brilliant business idea. It’s a loss for them and us.
We all do things in our own time, and God knows it’s taken me years to get comfortable with the idea that I don’t need a Day Job to survive. (I currently work part-time for an indie publisher, and it’s a great experience. My values are in synch with my employer’s, and one goal when I moved to New York was to learn about publishing from the inside, which is what I’m doing. This one, thankfully, is not a Day Job.)
Next week we’ll talk about how you start building a bridge to a different kind of life, but for now I want to leave you with a question: If you could do anything at all, what would it be? (No fair saying Win the lottery, or Lie on a beach all day. Trust me, the beach would get boring after about a week, and sand has a funny way of lodging where you can’t reach.)
I mean it, what would your life look like? I’m not saying it won’t take sacrifice and hard work, and I’m not saying it will happen this month or even this year, but you can make it happen. I’ll remind you of my mantra: Life is short. Don’t wait.
You shouldn’t either.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
if i could do anything at all, i would do nothing. i've spent a lot of time thinking about it, and can't think of a single thing i'd rather do than nothing. i was that kid in grade school who never ever had an answer when the teacher asked, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' when pressed for an answer i would just make something up, but it was always a lie. trust me, i would not get bored of the beach. there were a good two years between when i quit my job playing video games and when i started with the mfa. i did nothing, and i loved it. i did some things, i went running, i went food shopping, cooked food, ate food, listened to music, watched tv. everyday i woke up in the morning with a spring in my step because i knew i really wouldn't be doing much of anything that day, and i never came close to getting bored with it.
Deonne, I loved this post. A couple of years ago, I was rejected for a Yaddo residency (damned fools), and that was my epiphany. I couldn't wait for the perfect day job (you know the one--it pays LOADS of money and requires very little time and effort), or the perfect environment, or any other perfect circumstances--not if I was going to write this... Read More book or any other. Clearly I would have to write in an imperfect world. I decided to write every day that week after I got home from work. It was only a week's commitment, very doable. At the end of the week, I decided to do it again the next week. After that, I had the momentum I needed to keep going. I write two or three hours a night. It isn't the ideal way to write a book--but waiting for the ideal way/ideal world was getting in the way of writing. I've been happier in the past two years than I've ever been because I'm feeding the thing I love most.
I have to agree with Mike Sanders. He is not alone in feeling that way.
I think this theory is all great in a perfect world, but if we did this, retail wouldn't exist anymore, neither would the auto industry, hard labor, tedious product line jobs, heck I'm venturing to say anything outside the entertainment and sports industry would crumble into nothingness.
But if one has the luxury to not have a mortgage, can afford car insurance and health care, and take care of their own needs without leeching off society for a single cent, then that person is one-in-a-million lucky.
I am one of the lucky ones. I live exactly where I want. I work at a beautiful resort and get to be in the SPA environment that I love. I am challenged daily keeping my mind fresh. If I could change anything I would say, "I want my own SPA, and maybe a partner in my life that I could share the joy with." These are things that I know one day I will have, in time...oh and maybe more patience.
Great post, D! It's painful to think about sometimes, like scraping off a layer of skin. My work is always challenging, stressful and very much about money and earning accolades. That's ok, but is it the bookstore/coffeehouse/ flower shop I want to own? Is it the commune I want to start? No, those are in another galaxy.
I thought, couldn't I get a Job reading Old Books, Books a hundred Years or more old. Then, I could write about them, peeking someone's interest in them to get them out of Out Of Print and into the mainstream again. Sitting in the sand with a good pair of sunglasses and a really bronze tan. The kind of tan you can only cold shower in. I could get the sand out if I really try.
My day job, off to fight the british government to get them to return the Parthenon Marbles.
(music playing here) dunt de dunt de dah, daht de daht de dannn.
This is such a great conversation, thanks to everyone for commenting.
I know my ideas about the pursuit of Life on the High Wire may only appeal to a narrow strip of the population, and I agree with Connie that personal responsibility is key.
There will always be people who need and want Day Jobs. We all have to pay for housing and food and doctors, and if you have children that's even more responsibility. Not everyone currently has the option of doing that with self-employment, for example. Especially in times like these, a steady paycheck is a must for lots of us.
Day Jobs are also a great way to get established in the world, say if you're young or new to this country. Plus, it's perfectly fine if you don't have a vision for anything different. Contentment can look a lot of different ways.
Mike, I'm sorry to single you out (but I can because I know you - ha), but I assume you're getting an MFA because you want to continue to write. Right? (I hope so, because you're talented.) Writing definitely doesn't qualify as doing nothing, though it does synch nicely with beach time!
I have to admit that reading these posts at this time in my life is both a blessing and kind of painful. Because truthfully, what I want to do forever is kind of what I'm doing right now, only somehow making money instead of watching it dwindle quite steadily out of my pocket. I get up and make coffee and read and write and travel a bit and go to school. If I could cut out the anxious job-searching and debt I know I'm racking up... well, that'd be perfect.
Though in a perfect, perfect world, I'd blog more and travel more. And like what I'm writing more. And lose 20 pounds. Somehow these things allude me. All of which is coming together to make me feel mostly lost. (But still sorta happy because beyond the cash flow issue, this is the life I want!)
Margosita - please don't feel lost! What's great is that you know what you want, and that's half the battle. Many, many people don't have such a clear vision of their dream life, which I think is why so many people stay in unsatisfying jobs - they don't have a better picture, so why jump ship? A life where you can read, write, travel, and study (and yes, get into good physical shape), is certainly in the realm of the real. I may have to explore this further in tomorrow's blog. Thank you!
Deonne, you said "I know my ideas about the pursuit of Life on the High Wire may only appeal to a narrow strip of the population". I'd like to know who it is your ideas *don't* appeal to!?
It's that pesky "reality/responsibility" thing that separates the "successful" vs the "not successful". What defines "success"? That's another separator. But again, I'd like to know who truly defines themselves as a "success" if they are struggling financially and depending on gov $ to get through another month, but still define themselves successful because, gosh darn it, they aren't stuck in a 9-5'er!
Then you could say "Well, survival of the fittest"; whoever can make it work is the success. But that conflicts with a leftist mentality of looking out for those who cannot be independent, and if I may be so bold, I don't know many non-leftists who declare one should abandon their job to do something they love, you know?
God, politics make me more enemies every day LOL :P But when I win that lottery, you bet your buttocks I'm quitting my job that nanosecond!!!
Post a Comment