Your job is your life’s expression.

Your job is your life’s expression. You will spend most of your life doing it.

So chose one that brings you joy, not depression.

These are the words of wisdom from my church’s pastor last Sunday, simple and at the same time profound when you start reflecting on it.

How many of us go through every day dreading and dragging ourselves to work every single day?

How many of us put up with whatever mental health we are in because it pays the bills, gets us the house and the occasional splurge?

How many of us really are truly happy with our job? Moreover, how many of us experience JOY because of it?

When we started entering the working world, most of us went out and settled for whichever job out there that was more or less in line with either our expertise or our passions, or some even for whatever was available.

As we climbed up the corporate ladder and to the different life stages, the stress and pressures of the job and life responsibilities in general might have made these earlier “perfect” jobs become less and less of what it was before. And instead of bringing us happiness, they only brought stress and depression.

Somewhere in the mid life career, we forget.

We forget the whole purpose and reason why we went a certain way, chose a certain line of work.

We forget about what really brings us joy, about what we really want our lives to mean, to express, to symbolize.

We go on every day battling every single fire, barely surviving month to month, all because we want to ensure financial security, not only for us, but also for our children.

We worry about failing a project, messing up a presentation, missing a target, embarrassing ourselves for doing the wrong thing, which could in fact cost us our job – and our family’s future.

And instead of living our life’s expression, we just go on survival mode.

Instead of pouring our hearts into our work, we kill it and let ourselves run on autopilot.

We act like robots, zombies for 10 to 12 hour for 5 days a week. Then we live (or sleep) the rest of the time.

But is that how life is supposed to be lived?

Are we supposed to just give up and accept that joy – happiness is just a utopian concept that will never happen to us working class people?

The answer is NO.

We need to remember. We need to think back or look inward and be brutally honest to ourselves what is it that we want our lives to stand for.

At the end of our days on earth, what do we want people to say about us?

What kind of legacy do we want to leave behind?

What do we think will make us joyfully work on every single day despite what the paycheck is?

Well the way I see it there’s only 2 ways to do this.

One, relook your job. If you cannot find any aspect of it which represents your life’s expression, your values, your dreams, then maybe you do need to look for something new.

Sure it might mean you start over your career again and risk financial liability but hey consider it a long term investment in your sanity and your LIFE.

If the universe agrees to it, it might just bring you both joy and success.

The second way which is more realistic is for those of us who have more than ourselves to consider.

Is there any way you can look at a career path, a role which can let you do what you want your life to mean?

What would bring you absolute joy for most of the days?

Even if it means letting go of that fast track CEO lane or that grand title or perhaps even a certain way of living,

Not everyone is built to become a Director or a CEO. And that’s OK.

Would you rather be a CEO/Director who is depressed or a manager/supervisor/less paid employee but joyful?

Don’t listen to the voices around you which make you feel inadequate just because you feel differently.

Let the others be whatever they want to be, how ever fast they want to.

Their job is their life expression.

Yours is yours.

Take it. Embrace it.

Don’t waste another day of your life doing something that depresses you.

Life is precious, every second is valuable.

Spend it only on that which brings you joy to honor it.

15th Oct 2012, aboard GA 866 on the way to Bangkok, 11.58 am.