Ethical Principles
What Is Work?
What is the purpose of work: to make a living or to make a life? I believe the purpose of work is both to make a living and make a life. As we grow up, we tend to always hear about “work” wether its at school thinking about what we want to be when we grow up or comparing to what our parents do. We constantly are reminded that one day we will find and have a job, but we expect to be something already at such a young age that we don’t really know until we discover it til we get older. Through time, things can change and we take various paths to get to where we want or need to be.
We want to make a living, but we automatically compare it to how much we can make instead of how it will make us feel. I know everyone wants to make more money but it all depends on what we end up doing for work. We continue to go through years of school and hopefully find our way to exploring what we want to do which can take years while possibly having multiple jobs along the way. During this phase of our life, it can take a while, but we still have that mindset of what we want to be when sometimes we are already loving what we do. We tend to seek more experiences in order to find our “dream job” or add on to our resume because we want or need to make more money in order to “make a living”. Depending on where we live and other factors can contribute to what we end up choosing as a career.
Many of us settle because the money is good or the job is easy. But are most of us really happy with what we are doing for work? Thats when a “vocation” becomes reality for if not some, most of us because many of us work so hard to become what we dreamed of doing that took a journey to be finally working the job we love. Thats what makes this adventure find its destination. It really takes fate, chance, destiny, God’s Call” to have a job that gives purpose and fulfillment in life. Vocation is more than just a job, but a calling that you truly give your heart and mind to. We become who we are by the choices in life we take. Thats why many of us change our majors or we end up finding something along the way that grabs us or we end up having a total knack for doing it. Finding what we love and looking forward to it that isn’t just a job where you need to pay for things in life. Each vocation requires talent, desire, and can be difficult to discover but worth it when we acquire it. Success is not measured only by how much we make, but what we achieved along the way.
When I was young I dreamed of playing professional sports, become a race car driver, or either be an artist because I loved to draw. In high school I started becoming interested in wanting to join the military because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but being a son of a Nurse, I chose to make my mom happy by trying to go find something in the medical field. My senior year, my father had a heart attack and survived, but a male physical therapist was the one helping him get back on his feet quickly and soon I found myself wanting to study physical therapy. Then as I was in college, I volunteered as a coach for basketball during the spring which led to working with the youth during the summer at camps for the city, plus a job with a non profit after school program called Youth Fitness Education and I immediately fell in love doing it. I thought to myself, “this isn’t going to make me as much money”, but it was something I enjoyed a lot. It was an easy transition as I ended up majoring and graduating in Kinesiology - Physical Education. So the best job I ever had is currently what I’m doing, which is a P.E. Instructor for an Elementary School and Program Director for SF Basketball Academy.
The worse job I ever had wasn’t that bad, but they were in retail. While in college, I worked at Finishline then Sports Authority. They really pushed selling products, meeting quotas, and trying to get sign ups for specific things like memberships or subscriptions because not only did it benefit the business but I could make some extra money by doing these things. The managers were really nice, servicing customers was actually fun, coworkers became friends, and I learned a lot like networking, communicating, organizing, preparing, etc. The things that I didn’t enjoy much were when district managers or corporate visits happened because everyone was so serious and they didn’t notice how hard we work, but only cared about the numbers or at least that’s how most of us felt including me. The other not so great was cleaning up after customers who don’t realize that they were making a big mess in the store when we’re trying to keep things organized or that they didn’t care much about how we took cleanliness as importance to us. Overall, retail wasn’t that bad but they seem to always get their money back from us because I would spend my hard earned check just to use my discount and purchase things in the store.
In my opinion, what makes a good job is just waking up knowing how much you love what what you’re doing as a career. A great job to me consists of awesome coworkers, supervisors who support you, and an environment to work where it’s enjoyable. A “good job” is something that doesn’t feel like “work” and is a place where you know you can continue to learn and thrive from. I’m blessed and lucky to find a place where I can continue to grow and be a big impact on the youth plus the community. I love what I do and it was process to find, but worth it!
REFERENCES
Lawhead, William F. (2002) second edition
The Voyage of Discovery
A Historical Introduction To Philosophy
The Ancient Voyage: The Greeks and Romans
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