As you might can tell by now, I am on a happiness-fulfilling-whole person binge right now. I have just finished reading How do You Define Success? Hopefully Like This. The overall theme is this… to focus energy in one area is to take energy away from another area. Something that the author did not address is that not all energy consumption is made equal.
How much energy that is require to perform your job function varies depending on a few factors. The first is the “physical” energy needed. A labor intensive job will require more energy – obviously – than a non labor intensive job. This requirement is more task based, though the individual plays a role too, such as muscle mass and motor function. However, there is also “emotional” energy.
How much emotional energy a job takes relies mostly on the individual and less on the task. Think about all the tasks or chores you HATE doing. Think about how you feel during or after completing them. If you hate your job, it is going to take more emotional energy and if you love your job.
Like-Hate is not the only component of emotional energy. There is also compensation and many others. If you want to have your cake and eat it too – which you deserve – you need to take this into account. If you hate your job, it is going to require more emotional energy dedicated to it in order to do your day-to-day job, but also to work towards an advancement.
Then there is also your attitude towards advancement in that career path. If you hate that career path, that will also increase emotional energy required. I could go on-and-on-and-on about all that goes into allocating emotional energy.
To sum it all up, find a career that you will enjoy and will enjoy advancing through. If you enjoy your career, you will have more energy to dedicate towards non-career related activities… and you will enjoy those more as well.
The Great Blog of Chanel Rose 