WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING???

Seriously folks, how interesting can your resume be?
I’ve personally given up talking about what I do for a living and focus instead on what I do in every other moment of my life; and it’s working for me for two reasons. First because I am far, far larger than my day job and second, because I am also no longer boring anybody into taking their own life with a magic marker and a nail file. No involuntary manslaughter charges on my horizon. I wonder if in this moment, you can say the same.

It’s amazing what precious commodities good people are willing to trade for a job title of dubious value, brief moments of hollow recognition, a sense of accomplishment inside of an immaterial domain and the delusion of satisfaction from asserting a hierarchical dominance over somebody a step or two lower inside of a corporate org chart - sometimes with behaviour that is as unacceptable as it is unwarranted. But it’s also understandable when you consider that such behaviour is constantly being rewarded. Organisations love to ‘handsomely’ reward employees for their actions when those actions result in corporate objectives being met despite your every personal cost. But then, in the absence of anything more substantial in your personal life, the validation you might experience from accomplishing other people’s objectives may in fact appear valuable; particularly when every so often you are publicaly awarded gold-class tickets for your thirty eight years of exhaustion that left you no remaining time to do much else of any personal value other than perhaps raise your children remotely. I’ve actually had conversations with people who are so personally defeated, that they regard a few months of paid leave every two hundred thousand years as something of a life privilege - that they look forward to with a cheerful anticipation. Horses for courses I suppose - and if they are embracing it with their eyes open then power to them - but that’s not for me, because I am nowhere near defeated.

If you are reading this material, I suspect that by now, you will know exactly what I stand for - and I would hope that you can see the difference between who you are capable of ‘being’ and what you resort to in order to make yourself a living. If the two ‘must’ collide - then consider leaving the profit-motivated corporate metaphors in the office where they belong, so that you’re no longer trying to ‘add value’ in an ‘outcomes-focused’ - ‘compliance & governance forum’ kind of way – to your personal life. Corporate values will NOT bring you any kind of personal happiness, simply, because they were never intended to. Try to understand that they are are inherently powerless in that regard.
Instead, try bleeding your personal capacity to ‘BE’ an aware, authentic, emotionally intelligent and properly engaging human being - into your work life.

See if anything changes for you.

As always - Your Enemy - but more importantly - Your Friend...