Work can be healing and satisfying and open new insights and horizons. It is worth spending time working out what to do for a living. If anything. So much time will be spent there and it will lead in quite particular directions and preclude other possibilities.

After a while we become the roles we take on and our intelligence and perception channel into specialised worlds where other perspectives and opportunities are less obvious. We become less ourselves and more our role.

Each job has its particular hazards including injury and burn out. Safe for some, dangerous for others.

It may be as easy to find a career that is enjoyable and fits one's temperament, strength, endurance, interests and skills as one that will be frustrating and end in drudgery or failure.

If we put our demons to work we will be successful and rewarded. If not we may be unsatisfied and uncomfortable.

  • Someone who is eager to please can look after customers.
  • Someone who is obsessive can see tasks though to the last detail.
  • Someone who is depressed is likely to make sure that things are right and will tend to be more realistic and attentive to detail than someone who is relaxed and sociable. They are less inclined to make up stories, hope for the best and look on the bright side
  • Someone who is anxious looks for risks and potential problems.
  • Someone who has been traumatized in combat can spot the tiniest warning sign and act reflexively without thinking. They might make an ideal truck or bus driver or emergency services worker

After finding a career or activity, only take work that develops the skills and directions that really interest you to save getting sidetracked into unsatisfying dead ends.

Most of our learning occurs in the home and playground. Although the skills of a trade or profession are learned at school, real success depends on preschool and family experience. A deeper understanding of work and social roles is passed down in families though generations.

It may not be so easy to find a workplace that lines up with one's values. So many contribute to the degradation of the planet and our quality of life.

The career pages show how to find a job that fits.