Thought Two #: You Are Not Your Job In ‘How To Talk to Anyone,’ Leil Lowndes suggests we do NOT ask people what they do for a living or what they do, (which implies the same) but... how they spend their time. At first, people might find this a strange question, and they’ll likely still say something about their job. However, some might find the question open enough to talk about a hobby, a passion and so on. If they do still mention their job, you could then say, ‘besides your job, what do you like doing?’ The question encourages bigger conversations than our employment. Whilst we may well enjoy our jobs, we are not our jobs. The guidance in all mindfulness books I’ve read is often to ensure that we separate our thoughts from the things that stress us. Work-related anxiety and sickness costs billions internationally. In many cases, our job and are stress are related. If that’s the case, perhaps we can spend less time talking about our jobs. It is not for somebody to judge whether our career and identity should be more separate, as we may well enjoy what we do; get immense pleasure from it and be in a job that contributes to solutions in the world, not its problems. However, as we learn to talk to others (yes, let’s talk to strangers more often!) and spread happiness, the opening thoughts of this post may help encourage us to learn about people beyond their professional status. This is a healthy starting point to new conversations that are about the things that drive our internal, enduring passions: the things that don’t necessarily need to come with a salary or a job description.

Posted by poorplayer at 2020-01-07 22:12:04 UTC