Is job sterility what you want?

Deliberately wrong word. 'Hope you liked it. Here's some free stuff that will help.

This isn't about me, but 5 seconds about me first, to explain where I'm coming from. I’m many things, but they all have something in common. I create positive change. I move people to a better place. I do this with coaching, therapy, advice, art and music. If none of that’s doing it for ye, I’ll cook you something ??.

I know of no one that is completely satisfied with their life. I know people that are more satisfied than others, but when it comes down to it, no one I know is ‘there’. That’s because there isn’t a ‘there’ to be, or to be at. We are meant to be in a constant state of becoming, and if we are not, our lives are sterile; they are unmoving and produce little or nothing of merit. This is a miserable situation, you don’t want to be there, and I don’t want you to be there, whoever you are!

What would you do, if you could do anything? Anything, that paid enough for you to do it. I mean actually paying you, not something that would be a great idea if only it could. Would you like to have enough money to do nothing? Would you like to have so much money that you could spend as much as you like, and it wouldn’t matter? Would you like to have so much money that you could do what you want because you have some meaningful thing to do?

Surprisingly, these are questions very few people ever seriously ask themselves. I mean properly, thinking about it, talking it through with someone, being as honest as possible and really getting into the nitty-gritty. I want to take ‘have a family’ out of the picture, I mean you. You, what would be a thing, or things, that you want to do with your waking hours? Do you know? Can you make a start into honest thinking about it? Are you brave enough to really consider it? Dare you?

I don’t necessarily mean a job. I also don’t necessarily mean a career. However, both of those are cool, of course. I mean, what is there that is going to satisfy you, what will give you a sense of contentment, what will it be that produces periods of flow in your waking hours? What can be so absorbing and satisfying that the minutes and hours pass, and you notice them in psychological time (which is different from clock time).

I do not mean that old work/ life balance baloney either – there should be no need to try to compensate for 8 hours of drudgery with a hobby, or a nice walk… I mean – your life. Have your life, that you can be satisfied with, and happy about, and have your work as part of it. I’m getting you to form visuals here, soundscapes, and feelings… this is important.

Do you feel that your existence here and now is for fulfilling a biological function, paying bills, and then ceasing, or perhaps your soul or spirit goes off somewhere or comes back and you do it all again?

Most people fall into the last paragraph, and that’s the way ‘the system’ likes it. The consumerist system. AI and robots don’t buy stuff… or maybe they’ll be designed to buy stuff from each other… and completely replace us. Perhaps they’ll learn from us, that that’s what we do, and start doing it?

I want to be a good kind person, and be helpful etc… yes, OK – those are virtues – they’re not paid positions, and they’re not what you would be doing while you’re exhibiting those virtues. You can only ‘do’ that with your life if you either have a lot of money or live in a situation that needs very little. So if what you wanted at the beginning of this piece was to have a load of money, and you can achieve this, maybe this is for you…

… if it isn’t something you can achieve any time soon, welcome back.

You can throw up your hands, and eyes, and think it’s all too hard. Magically going from here, to somewhere better, whatever that is, is definitely too hard. How do you eat an Elephant? Well, I wouldn’t, it would have to be something like an entire tree of apples for me, but I digress – one bit at a time is the answer.

If there is some medical reason why you cannot think about anything else but getting through the next bit, whatever that is, I hear you, I’ve been there. For everyone else, I say to you, thinking about where you are now, what’s in front of you, what the next days, weeks, months, years; is that what you want for yourself?

If it is, great! You win… why did you read this, just out of interest?

If not, here’s my gift to you, and actually, it’s how I coach, cajole, push, annoy, irritate my clients… What is the smallest thing you can do now, right now, about going from here, to a better situation? Even if it just takes 10 minutes. 5 minutes. One minute… seconds… DO IT. However small, do it. It might be a text to someone, sending a PM, or just talking something through. DO IT… DO IT NOW. RIGHT NOW.

You will feel better. You will have a bit of dopamine squirted somewhere nice ??.

Most of the time I spend with people in my coaching and therapeutic work, and my advisory work, they hate me, just a little bit, just enough so if they do the thing, then do another thing, little things, often… that in the end, they realise that things start to happen. They notice more things, more opportunities, they have that coffee with someone, they do attend that zoom thing, they see ideas and openings that weren’t there. Things begin to move. They give life to the point of existence, to participate in our own becoming, whatever that is, rather than be a passive victim of circumstance.

Sometimes they stay right where they are, but their role, and their engagement with it changes. That’s all good too ??. Either way, I like to think most people appreciate what've done in the end. Eventually, like a spinning top, people get enough energy and off they go themselves - I love that!

Writing this has been my ‘do it’. I’ve had “one of those days”. Pushing at steam. It’s taken me two hours to write this, but now I feel I’ve done something. I may never know what effect this has, if any, it doesn’t matter, I’ve participated in my own becoming. I am in a better situation now than that of endangering the existence of inanimate objects, like I was a few hours ago ??.

Try it. Have the big think, yes do that. Visualize, form pictures, sounds, smells, sense the temperature, whatever it is. Then do something, anything, however small, which may even just be a possibility of making something move.

Why are you still here?