What should I be when I grow up?

Yes what should I be, for me this is a moral question, doing a job just to pay the bills leaves me feeling a bit dirty, wrong and a tad bit soul less. It is no judgement on the majority of people who do work just for the money, I think it is perfectly practical and we can’t all find meaning from our paid employment (there are plenty of hobbies, volunteer work and creative outlets that provide meaning too). However I am stuck with the notion that if I’m going to spend that much time and energy on something then I better enjoy it and find value in it. I have done much soul searching in an attempt to cure myself of this but it still sticks. I figure it is part of my nature, the part that is romantic, impractical, adventuresome and extremely ideal – amazingly age and life experience has not wearied this out of me.

 I am currently in an ideal position at the moment where I have taken a break from work and can choose to re-enter the work force in a different field, due to this I spend a fair bit of time thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. To be honest I have been thinking up vocations for myself and researching them for a very long time. I often joke that I think up a new job every week. This is what I have considered recently.

• Librarian
• Dietician
• Massage Therapist
• Run my own Wellness Retreat
• Teacher (Primary, University, English as a Second Language)
• Personal Trainer/ Fitness Instructor
• Editor/ Writer
• Corporate TaiChi Instructor (lunch time workplace classes)

I’m sure there are more, these are the ones that come to the front of my mind. What amazes me is that I am so fortunate to have so much opportunity and so unfortunate to have only one lifetime to try different paths. I am like a rabbit in the headlights frozen with the abundance of choice what should I pursue? What if I spend lots of time on it and it isn’t for me? What if my family work hard to support me and it isn’t for me? What if I’m no good at it or I don’t like it? The fear has me stunned.

I have tossed around the idea for about a decade that an agency that specialises in adult work experience would be fantastic. Both for people that want to test out new career ideas and for those who want to see what all sorts of jobs are like. I would love to drive a tram, assist a visual merchandiser, farm some kind of plant life, deliver flowers and many, many more things. I don’t want to these careers forever but I’d love to taste them for a week or so. There must be a business in this somewhere, I could be on permanent work experience and help people experience different work options hmmmmm.