How Do I Figure Out Why I Work? Don’t Go to College
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I have worked twelve jobs in eight years. At that time, I have concluded, I am terrible at working, but I have also accepted that I am addicted to working. I have to feel like I accomplished something every day. How can both be true at the same time?
Upon the last few months of reflection, I have figured out that none of my previous jobs, I fulfilled my reasons for working. I didn’t know those jobs weren’t for me because I didn’t understand why I wanted to work! But that just made me more frustrated, because why didn’t I know when I was eighteen my reasons for working? Why didn’t it occur to me that I needed a job that fulfilled my goals for working? Why did it take so long to figure it out?
Reasons for Working:
After I quit my twelfth job in eight years because of work-related depression. I started researching. The more I dug, the more I discovered, there are lots of reasons people work. Here are some common reasons to work:
To make a difference/change the world
Financial reasons
- To get a paycheck
- To represent the world acknowledging your worth
- To retire
To have fun/do something you are interested in
- To have an outlet for creativity
- To have friends/be social
- Learning
Place to go
- To have responsibility
- To have a place to go and feel important
- Accomplishment, become a master in something
- Independence
From these resources:
I pin-pointed that I predominantly work to change the world. I feel like work is the reason I was born. That my work will benefit others around me, that doesn’t mean that I don’t want anything else. That doesn’t mean I am never going to stop working. A family is still in my future, and it’s something I am looking forward too! I still need to relax every once in a while, but even on vacation, I feel like I need to be productive (to my husband’s dismay).
