The other night my oldest daughter Katie called me. She was feeling down in the dumps. Katie is a server, and even though she makes more money then a lot of college graduates, has great benefits…she hates her job.
At first, full of parental wisdom, I lectured her about how fortunate she is to even have a job and how working and making a living is all part of being a grown up…and yes, at times, what comes with all of that, is the risk of being stuck at a job you don’t like. Hey, if you want to eat…keep doing what you are doing and stop whining about it.
But the more I listened to her talk about how deep down she feels she is meant to do more with her life, make a difference, somewhere, somehow…I realized she is searching for her purpose.
My advice to her was this.
Yes, you hate your job…but you need it right now…at least until you discover what it is you would rather be doing. In the meantime, go to work everyday with the mindset you will make the very best of whatever you are doing for the moment. Use your dissatisfaction with your current situation as a reason to tell yourself this is only a season of your life…only a small chapter of a huge encyclopedia of things yet to come.
You have no idea what you you’d rather be doing? That doesn’t mean you won’t…it just means you haven’t stumbled upon it…yet.
Katie had told me once she wanted to design clothing. A few years ago I bought her a sewing machine. I asked her if she had used it yet. Her reasons for not doing so made sense…she didn’t know where to start..she had thought about taking classes…but had never gotten around to it…besides she said, what if I spend all of that time only to find out I hate it?
And who could blame her for feeling that way?
How could Katie possibly ever understand some things just need time to develop. We as a society are caught up in a sense of immediate gratification. Fast food is popular because why?…it’s fast. Gone is sending a letter via the postal service, in favor of email, text, and now twitter and tweets. Turn on the TV or radio, most everything is marketed as quicker, faster, better. Why wait when you can have it now? Even dating has caught the bug…with a click of a mouse you can cycle through hundreds if not thousands of potential “soul mates” with minimal time invested.
Now that we have Facebook who needs to pick up the phone when you can keep tabs on hundreds of people at a glance? We spend more resources and money on new innovative ideas revolving around how to save time than we do on fighting poverty and cures for diseases.
Energy drinks have replaced sleep to give people more time on… doing more, because we can now do it quicker, faster, but not always better. There is even talk about replacing the teaching of Cursive writing in schools with more keyboarding classes. Soon the ability to write long hand with be a dying art. Why? Because it takes too much time and who needs it?
We speak of patience being a virtue and how good things come to those who wait. However the world breeds impatience…a biproduct of not having to wait for much of anything anymore.
Dial up internet? Please…most people wouldn’t even use it even if it was free…it’s too damn slow.
Am I anti-technology. Hell no…I’m right there with everyone else. I like things fast…I can get more done, and because I can save time I have taken multi-tasking to a whole new level. But what concerns me is we have evolved to a point where saving time is more important than making the most of our time. There is a difference.
Our children learn from early on the value of being proactive, not to procrastinate, have a sense of urgency, being first, faster is easier, better. Some, if not all, are very good qualities. But what about the importance of trying new things, exploring different options…even if it doesn’t pan out in the end? Failing…without any recognizable positive results? Instead we label it as a waste of time…because without the immediate gratification of knowing the results right away…why bother trying?
Time they say, can work for us…or against us.
Which one is it for you?
BM
