{"id":1401,"date":"2018-04-30T09:45:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T13:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2018-04-30T09:43:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T13:43:02","slug":"identity-and-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/identity-and-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity and Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rare is the man or woman who can walk with graceful indifference to their career. I once had a music teacher advise me to learn all the theory I could, and then forget it.<\/p>\n<p>Be the best you can be in your craft and then let it go. Really.<\/p>\n<p>Identity and career are two parts of life that should never meet. If they do, it can be lethal, and very difficult to separate. A career can take over and leave true identity on life support. I speak from experience. It takes a long time to regain, or replace, what you lose.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve found these dangers in the mixing of identity and career:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Quiet resignation.<\/strong> This occurs when we get older or have been at something for a while. The lie we tell ourselves is &#8220;we&#8217;re in too deep, and it could be worse.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>The high.<\/strong> It feels good in the moment, so we desire the thrill. We enjoy being seduced by flattery and accomplishment. Nothing quite like being the one to watch.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The ghost of our father.<\/strong> This one is so subtle. We watched a man, or a woman, toss away life for not much in the end. That script then becomes our own.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The payback.<\/strong> Somewhere we got wounded and the chip appeared. This is the closet sociopath coming out to wreck the place.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The false obligation.<\/strong> We pull out all the noble reasons for staying. &#8220;I have a mortgage, I have my kid&#8217;s college education.&#8221; It&#8217;s as if we think we&#8217;ll be excused for our fear in the end.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The choice is mine, the choice is yours. We have to remember that career is a great dance when the identity is kept separate. The challenge is found in living in a culture that values the opposite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rare is the man or woman who can walk with graceful indifference to their career. I once had a music teacher advise me to learn all the theory I could, and then forget it. Be the best you can be in your craft and then let it go. Really. Identity and career are two parts&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,122,364,54,7],"tags":[23,69,86,1149,203,39,75,1653,67],"class_list":["post-1401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-commentary","category-career-2","category-current-affairs","category-life-perspectives","category-wellbeing","tag-career","tag-career-management","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-job","tag-life","tag-life-choices","tag-obligations","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions\/2087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}