Jake and I were just talking about something along these same lines this last night. He just graduated from Georgetown (he went on the GI bill) so I've interfaced with a lot of really high achieving individuals and it becomes a little bit of a competition between people-what schools you went to, what jobs you did, what you want to do with your career, etc. etc. Inevitably someone will ask me, "Where do you work?" I smile as kindly as I can and say, "I work at the Minute Clinic, I don't take work home with me and I have time to do other things I love." It's interesting because sometimes I see people visibly relax and then they start talking about things they enjoy outside of their profession, because I removed myself from the competition by defaulting letting them win.
It makes me also think of the Marion Woodman in Addiction to Perfection, “Living by principles is not living your own life. It is easier to try and be better than you are than to be who you are. If you are trying to live by ideals, you are constantly plagued by a sense of unreality. Somewhere you think there must be some joy; it can’t be all “must,” “ought to,” “have to,” And when the crunch comes, you have to recognize the truth: you weren’t there.”
So this is a long winded way of saying, I admire you now and your younger 22 year old self for having the courage to do what you wanted to do with your life instead of allowing your whole life to be shaped by anyone else's idea of what that should look for your life should look like.
Jake and I were just talking about something along these same lines this last night. He just graduated from Georgetown (he went on the GI bill) so I've interfaced with a lot of really high achieving individuals and it becomes a little bit of a competition between people-what schools you went to, what jobs you did, what you want to do with your career, etc. etc. Inevitably someone will ask me, "Where do you work?" I smile as kindly as I can and say, "I work at the Minute Clinic, I don't take work home with me and I have time to do other things I love." It's interesting because sometimes I see people visibly relax and then they start talking about things they enjoy outside of their profession, because I removed myself from the competition by defaulting letting them win.
It makes me also think of the Marion Woodman in Addiction to Perfection, “Living by principles is not living your own life. It is easier to try and be better than you are than to be who you are. If you are trying to live by ideals, you are constantly plagued by a sense of unreality. Somewhere you think there must be some joy; it can’t be all “must,” “ought to,” “have to,” And when the crunch comes, you have to recognize the truth: you weren’t there.”
So this is a long winded way of saying, I admire you now and your younger 22 year old self for having the courage to do what you wanted to do with your life instead of allowing your whole life to be shaped by anyone else's idea of what that should look for your life should look like.