Let me ask you a question…
How much of your self-identity is attached to what you do for your occupation?
Dream Big, Dream Often
Let me ask you a question…
How much of your self-identity is attached to what you do for your occupation?
Since I am retired, my identity could be a retired sweet old gentleman with disabilities to a lazy old ner-do-well crippled guy with cats. I would like to suppose the actual descriptive identity of myself lies somewhere in-between the two extremes. g
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what I do for a living is just a job and does not define who I am.
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So 0%?
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A bit, I suppose. I love my work, and I love being of help to my patients. But it doesn’t consume me.
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I imagine you have to put up a bit of a wall or you would be overwhelmed with involvement in others.
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Yep. Gotta turn it off at the end of the day.
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None… it’s what I do to fill up my days. I’ve had 8 jobs since I graduated college 17 years ago. I’ve really enjoyed them all, but I’d be having an identity crisis if I self identified with my jobs.
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I’ve had 2 careers over the last 30 years. One as a PGA Professional and one in the marketing industry.
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The two are fairly independent, especially in retirement, but even before – so many years, so many different, very different, jobs.
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It is interesting to me that no one has used the word “career” but have used the word “job”. I haven’t worked a job since before college. I have had 2 careers which I was passionate about and I don’t see them as independent but intertwined. After all most people spend more time with coworkers than they do at home.
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That is interesting. I think that for some the idea of “career” implies a largely planned path in which a dominant interest or talent drives how one earns a living. Others, including me, take a winding path of necessities and opportunities in which the dominant interests may intersect with paid work, but not necessarily.
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I am the former.
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Gosh …. I have reinvented myself so many times in jobs and careers. If I let my job define who I was I would never know me at all. One thing all f my jobs and career choices have in common though, is that when I am there, I am 100% there and I always give my all to whatever it is I am doing at the time, while hopefully still being true and loyal to myself and to my loved ones.
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You are the first person to use the word career. I think it is easier to keep work separate from “self” when you see your work as a job. When career comes in to play I think some of one’s identity gets attached to that career.
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I completely agree.
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The old is “what you do” the answer to “who you are”. I’ve had different careers so I have always had trouble identifiying myself as my job or my career. Now that I am older I fight the perception by many that “retired” means old and on the way out.
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But if we are honest, some part of our identity does get attached to that career.
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Actually more that I thought now that I an retired except I did so many other things while I worked, I have lits and lits to do and get involved with
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I appreciate your honesty. I think if more people spent time in introspection they would realize more of the identity is attached to their career than they may realize.
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I’m still working (or trying to- it’s been pretty dead in my field the last 3 years). Yes, I do identify myself as a seafarer. A captain. A DPO. I’ve spent my entire life working on and around the ocean. I’ve only had a couple of other jobs in my life: bartender, housekeeper, worked at a hot dog place in the mall.
I’ve never been out of work for more than a couple of weeks in my life until this latest downturn in the oilfield. It’s been really hard to adjust. There is no work on shore for a boat driver! Spending 50 years working on the water and then having every opportunity out there just disappear is very hard to deal with.
Before I was laid off, I would say probably 90% of my identity was tied up in my profession. Now, since I have been trying so hard to survive and have 4-5 other jobs trying to make up for that one, I would say only 80%. It is very depressing to find out after so many years of working so hard that there is nothing to show for it.
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I appreciate you being so honest. I hope something is around the corner that puts you back on the open ocean!
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thanks, it’s been rough.
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None. I retired last Year. However I’m now working part time with the Brooklyn Public Library in the Adult Learning Center. This job is closer to my Heart because I am a Liaison for my community where many People are studying for their High School Equivalency Diploma formerly known as the GED. Plus I have always Loved Libraries from childhood.
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It sounds like you are a part of a great mission.
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📖📃📒📓📚📚🗞📰
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