Finding the perfect career

I have been thinking about jobs and careers lately. More specifically, I have been thinking about finding a job that is a good fit. I have recently been in conversation with people who love their jobs and people who have had such bad experience that they are wary of even trying to get a job. I know people who have jobs simply to pay the bills and I know people whose jobs have consumed them. I know workaholics and those slackers that you sometimes wonder how they ever managed to get hired, much less keep their jobs when they seem to do so little and care so little.

I have been in school for the past year and a half trying to train for a new job as a teacher. I have had many times when I have doubted my decision to pursue this career, but I have also had numerous occasions in which I am SURE that this is the right career for me.

I know that no job is perfect, and you won't like all the tasks in a day and there will be days when you don't like your job at all. But I want my job to be a good fit. I want to wake up happy to go to work rather than go to bed dreading the next day. This desire is what has kept me from pursuing a better paying job - unfortunately my passion happens to correspond with one of the lowest paying careers in our nation.

As I look ahead to my next position, with student teaching already assigned, I have felt a variety of emotions. Even last night as I was discussing it with a friend, I felt very stressed out.

However, today as I once again visited my second grade friends, I didn't want to leave. I had this peace that I was in the right place, and that I could happily do this forever. Again, I know that no job is perfect, and teaching can be thankless, politically charged, frustrating to no end, and at times fruitless. But I go to bed tonight confident in my decision to pursue this, confident in my ability to learn and grow into this position, confident in the possibilities of the future.

How about you? Do you believe in the work that you are doing? Is there anything you can change so that you are happier in your current position? Any relationships that need strengthening so that both you and your coworkers enjoy the day more?

Be the change that you want to inspire. Be the person today that you wish to be in the future. Put aside fear...and BE.