The dreaded question…

So…what do you do? 
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, about my mission:

“To help you create a life you never want to retire from!” – and what I mean by that.

So, to start my research, I went to my favorite book, The American Heritage Dictionary and looked up the word “retire.” It says: “To go away or depart, as for rest, seclusion or shelter. To withdraw from business life, so as to live at leisure from one’s pension.”

Today, I’d like to expand on what that means to me. I remember when my dad retired. I remember thinking, “He doesn’t seem very happy.” And when I asked him about that, he said, “Lisa, my work was all that I had.” And I watched him over the next 10 years, do more and more of the withdrawing, on both a personal and a social level. I suggested he volunteer somewhere, so he felt less “useless” as he put it. But he just became angry and said he didn’t want to. I watched him bore himself to death, literally.

I think that’s because, to him, his job was his identity.

That got me to thinking about how many times I’ve balked at the question, “So, what do you do?” because maybe, at the time, I was “only” a carpenter, or “only” a waitress, or “only” an international biking and hiking guide (which allowed me to travel the world and learn 4 languages, by the way!)

To me – probably because of my father – my job title was my identity. But without that title, however embarrassing it might have been to me – who was I? That question scared me. Even though the people who asked me that question were actually envious of me and my apparent freedom. They were corporate executives and lawyers or people who were “successful” in my eyes. And I was successful in their eyes. But I was enslaved to the idea that what we do is who we are.

That gave me pause to think.

And I realized that when people say, “So what do you do?” they aren’t asking me “Who are you?” That’s what I was hearing…and I think a lot of us hear it that way! Now I realize that what I do is not who I am. And what you do, is not who you are.

For some of us, our job is an expression of who we are. For me, JOB is an acronym for Joy Of Being. J-O-B. Your Joy of Being. If you are lucky enough, like me, to be doing something that is an expression of your joy, then I take my hat off to you. You are one of those lucky people that have a life they never want to retire from!

But for some of us, it’s not true yet.

So what I want to encourage you to do today, is to stop and think about what brings you joy. What is it that you want to express into the world?

What is your ideal J-O-B (Joy of Being?)

And it’s OK to be a little unsure! Believe you me, I’ve been there! I went back to school at 43 and then again at 58 – to become a Life Coach, because I wanted to help people “create a life they never want to retire from!”

As Sadh Guru says: Move away from the Pursuit of Happiness to the Expression of Joy.

And if you’d like a little help figuring out your dream JOB, let’s talk!

Till we speak again, remember…

It’s time to stop daydreaming and start  daredreaming! 

PS – If you’d like to hear me talk about this, click here! 

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