From ages back to the present day state of affairs, the referendum has largely ruled in favor of passion finding expression as also one’s profession. The idea being that a job that involves doing something you love does not feel like work and is hence the best way in going through the essentially laborious task of making money. The logic of course strikes as being the soundest and most profound as well of what is advice indeed, delivered in all good intention. But does idealised visualisation of reality always make perfect sense in all practical doing through them? The answer is one only as much certain in working across some percent and fraction of chances and probability.
One cannot say indeed that such universal belief is something curated through hearsay. In fact as many enthusiastic entrepreneurs and booming businesses prove, as does perfectly self sustaining artists and creators or even employees very evidently happy and satisfied with the professional profile they work in, it is quite common that most people love what they do. Or at least they do not hate with all their heart the very hustle that sustains their life and living and therefore their very being.
Whether it has been an impetus in such receiving or alternatively an idea stirring this narrative further, it is the notion of a dream job that parallelly came to be. Even when appealing in all universality, the idea and expectations of the dream job are as personal as could be. But the essential concept being still that alludes to a job one aspires for all through their years of learning and envisioning the future and there would be indeed some element of truth in passion summing up at least a part of one’s greater professional identity.
There though has been created a conflict in this consensus in more recent times. What though is particularly relevant through these changing viewpoints is not so much the theoretical debate and discussions that have taken a different course. It is more the realisation that has crept in that is startling, with even jobs once considered as ideal enough to find the dream description falling short of expectations in their real doing.
The factors have been as varied as they have been valid in establishing to the contrary the almost eternal vouching for loving what one needs to do anyway. The fallacy though might even be interpreted as having been forever present in such elucidations that equate the compulsion to do things for any reason- in this case money, to an inevitable loss of interest. This has proved to be pertinent as well, with also a host of other elements working to make matters emerge as only a bleak dream that we had once unduly glorified.
The disillusionment with dream jobs is real and quite expected perhaps as well, as their envisioning outside reality already set the standards so high so as to be guaranteed as risky. At the same time, the lack of awareness that one entertains before exploring by themselves the highly competitive and volatile job market also means that one is more likely to think up their dream job as per their own terms. This means overestimating everything from pay and perks to working conditions and hours which however also could be a draw upon the ’emotional’ nature of them. Because one loves the idea of doing something they necessarily come to be a bit too much optimistic and enthusiastic, so much so that very definitely determining factors are let pass off even in all their undesirability.
Another consideration that does not find adequate representation is that of skills and expertise. Indeed having a passion for something might endow you with a certain flair in that regard. But it also leads us to overvalue and be overconfident about our expertise which is why we exceed acceptable expectations. It might even be specially difficult to come to terms with this expression of impertinency, the result being that we refuse to acknowledge that we need some polishing. Without an industry-standard profile and reputation to fall back on, it is only obvious that what we had dreamt out as part of the professional experience does not translate so fluently in a real world setting.
The alternate way of working also holds though. Manyatimes, we love our job a bit too much to hold on to them despite these being not the most optimum of options that we have access to. From bearing with everything like inadequate pay and unprofessional work conditions and attitude to reassuring themselves that things will fall in place eventually, there actually is a lot of negativity that we are letting to get to us without even being aware. What emerges out of such less than ideal prevalences can be consequences that prove to be catastrophic for both our personal and professional living. The ‘thanklessness’ that we constantly face in such situations feed into us a hate almost of that very thing we had set about doing in all love of that prospect in passionate professional pursuing.
Quitting has come to be the norm more often than ever before now such that what asserts is a picture of disproportionate apathy. That however is not the end of the picture- it might in fact be a greater delusional realisation that seeps in through such unexpected course of action that unfolds. One finds themselves suddenly without what had come to be their core identity held in much pride. They experience a very unsettling emotion of fear and angst and hopelessness even as the pressing concern of scouting newer employability messes with their sense of self.
Not all of these however need to occur as external instances of untowardness. There can be times when the narrative splits due to an intensifying of the imploring intents. As one recognises that it is not worth hustling for something that they would do irrespective of a monetary reward following it or not, they consider it more feasible a situation to be able to balance out their love and work.
The consideration might even be of ‘saving’ their love from going sour due to all professional inconvenience thus encountered. Others might opt out of their lifelong career arrived at in passion simply to diversify their professional profile or to seek out newer fancies that might have begun to matter to them. Along similar lines, the prospects of pay and quantum of work all can individually as well as collectively explain the greater ‘coming-of-age’ disregard for doing something one wholeheartedly loves all through their entire existence.
An allowance needs to be made for the evolutionary nature of life in general to extend to each aspect of living. Growing out one’s love for their passion in an avenue they most often have an innate knack for might be rare but it sure can be real. The bottomline being that the reality asserts and affirms in change being the only constant and no matter how much of a dream attribute one hypes up their ‘kind’ of job in, the practicality of trudging through them is always effort to some extent or the other.
Dream jobs then might be overrated or they might even be obscured in the present day and age of living in a world that only needs some few figments of imagination to express as real. This might be an irony that on one hand we are making reality out of ideas and aspirations but faltering in matching up to the dreamy dimensions of what we ourselves construct and curate as well. But that is how the world would work in its own universal way such that once unattainable ideas are so much the norm today for them to express as insipid. And the continuous ways and areas through which inspiration emerges and avenues widen and visions are rendered rosier are what we actively look out for till eternity- which is to say till a time that comes to ‘feel’ like eternity. Dream jobs might be only as good a farce as life itself. If that sounds like a compliment and smacks as well of insulting undertones, that’s because it is both indeed.
