By: Allison Grundy
What is your dream job? Is it to be a musician, a movie star, an award-winning doctor or scientist?
Famous actors, talented artists and celebrated CEOs are people with an abundance of fame, prestige and respect in coveted jobs, yet they still experience their fair share of struggles. Despite their success, these people sometimes struggle with addiction or have tumultuous relationships and other mental health issues.
The current emphasis on having a dream job may be partially due to perceiving ourselves through our means of labor. In this society, a person’s value is inherently attached to a career.
James Baldwin, a writer and civil rights activist, once said, “I don’t have a dream job, because I don’t dream of labor.”
Work is not the purpose of life. And while dreaming and working toward more is important, focusing one’s entire hopes and dreams on a single, idealized job is to gamble on future happiness and on potential disappointment.
Two things can happen. One is that people never find success and feel trapped in the shadow of a dream that may never be achieved. The other is that, if they do achieve it, a new dissatisfaction sets in as they realize that the dream is still just a job—requiring work, concentration and compromised time away from family.
Even at the job that someone thought they always wanted, they may have to deal with an intense amount of pressure, struggling with co-workers and balancing work with the rest of their life. Also, it’s true that some jobs bring harm to others or to the employee, which are not jobs to be tolerated.
The ideal job may not rest on a better title or a promotion but, rather, on having kind co-workers, a supportive environment or a location close to home. These are the things often taken for granted in the workplace. With this mindset, anything could become the right job rather than a dream job.
I used to think that only having my “dream job” would make me happy. However, now that I’ve had jobs that seemed perfect for me on paper, I know that with any job hard days and disappointments can come. But I’ve also realized that happiness comes with appreciating the small things and I couldn’t be happier at a better job if I don’t take account of all I have to be grateful for.
That’s why I think fulfillment, for many people, is about doing what you can during the small, daily moments to bring joy into your day, such as taping a photo of your loved one to your work computer or packing all of your favorite foods for lunch. But beyond these nice moments, you can create the real satisfaction that comes from the work itself: helping others, providing a good service and being creative, which can be found in a wide range of positions.
Chasing a distant “dream” can blind us to the life we’re already living. With the right mindset, we can build a fulfilling life to enjoy—both at work and after hours.
