When I think about the word “career” nowadays, I try to stray away from associating it with the idea of a “job”. Because the word “job” is usually concerned with the idea of “working for money”, which is a concept I am slowly moving away from. In that sense, I don’t ever want to get a “job”.
I’m not saying that having a stable source of financial income isn’t important. But I think there is a problem when you end up working solely for money instead of for the sake of the work. Either the problem is that you are in a truly unfortunate situation where you are forced into a survival mode and have no choice but to work for money, or the problem is that you have somehow entered survival mode even though you don’t necessarily have to.
A Dream Career
When I think of a dream career, I think of being able to get paid for doing things that truly make me happy. And the fact is that not one type of work alone makes me happy. So if you were to ask me what I envision myself doing for a career, it would have to be many things. I would love to write – being able to publish a book would be amazing. I really enjoy teaching and speaking – so given the opportunity, I would jump at the chance to lecture a class or deliver a talk. I also like trying to solve challenging real world problems – I would be really interested in sitting on committees or boards that make crucial decisions concerning things like education.
So while I don’t see my “career” only encompassing medicine, I think being a physician would truly make my life happier than not. Like teaching, writing, and solving real world problems, I feel that medicine would be an important component to my long term happiness.