Every one has their calling..what's yours?
I was speaking to a friend last night and the topic of picking the right career came up. It was an interesting conversation because of the disparity in our approach to aspirations/careers/goals. I am Durga - The contemporary corporate slave shackled with gold chains in an unfulfilling job with the ability to afford the luxuries coveted by many. She is R - A world traveler with ambitions to change the world and the ability to make a difference in under privileged lives with her actions. Yet on the flip side, she’s living in debt and always financially planning next moves. So the topic of answering your calling came up. So here’s the train of thought that followed our stirring conversation.
- Are you answering your calling?
- Are you doing something you truly want to do on a daily basis?
- Have you already answered your call but find that its way too over rated?
- Do you really know what you want to do?
- Are you doing what you imagined you would be doing when you were 5?
As a person of Indian decent I, like most of my “common heritage compadres”, have been brainwashed since birth about security. Security is synonymous to acquiring material wealth, marrying the right (A secure bride/groom of Indian decent will satisfy requirements) woman/man at a young age, saving for retirement and saving to brainwash (umm…educate) your children. So we were brought up with the common goal of being an engineer or a doctor and more recently in finance. Well the right order of importance to the Indian parent are – Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, I-Banker/Trader, and Business Owner (usually hand me downs from the parent). This is what we learn from the day we are born till the day of accomplishment and if you become an engineer your parents tell you how they wished you would’ve been a doctor…so its def. a hard knock life.
Hence second generation or fully assimilated Indians such as me, respect the select few who choose to follow contemporary careers such as journalism, music, the arts, national security, etc. It shows a sense of an emancipated accomplishment, just like taking the red pill instead of the blue to escape the Matrix. But again we shower our kudos and picture us living our life’s through them by recognizing them as a part of our community. This is followed by regretting our inability to break the mold which is then followed by denial.
So what's the solution to this ineptitude? Quite Frankly, I’m still trying to find out. But its def. not the apathetic approach I am currently settling for. To solve any problem you must understand it better, therefore here are my answers to the questions posted above are:
- I’m not answering my call
- I'm not doing anything that makes me excited to wake up and go to work every day
- I don’t know what I really want to do because my minds distorted by the brain washing
- I’m def. not doing what I imagined I would be doing when I was 5 (Pri-minister of India..lol)
So I have understood my problem, yet no solutions. But here’s a positive spin on it - Hindu’s believe in re-incarnation…so may be I'll get a do-over in the next life :).
