Also, I clicked through to your Two Years post…and was flooded with feelings from that time, when you wrote it.
I’m thankful for your friendship.

I don’t personally find personality types that insightful beyond “hey, people are different” (and I disagree with methodology of something like Myers-Briggs). Maybe I’m just reacting to the fact that I usually get a type that says I would be happiest sitting at home alone reading a book. Maybe I would like them more if they matched my own perception of myself more and told me less about what I should change.

But if I use your navigation analogy, my theory of navigation is that the best navigation is knowing as soon as possible when you’re off route — which requires constantly searching for evidence that shows that you are off route.

Of course, everything can be a tool for any purpose, and if it works it works

I very much live for work, as defined in that article you quoted. Paid employment pays the bills; work — the things I do whether paid or not, because I love to and am driven toward them… that’s what feeds me. I am beginning to see better how I may be able to someday feed myself with work, and have that work also happen to be paid employment.

For me, that shift is happening because of the revelation that my whole life, I’ve chosen paid employment that is hard, because if it’s easy, I feel guilty getting paid. I’ve gone from difficult career to difficult career, all the while spending my free time doing the “work” I love, whether paid or not.

It’s a pretty remarkable epiphany to realize that — perhaps if I get over myself, and the feeling that employment has to be HARD in order for someone to pay me to do it … perhaps then, I can do the work I love, and make a living at it.

We’ll see. It seems a rebellious thought to me… but I’m pretty dedicated to an experiment in doing just that.

Thank you so much for sharing that great link… I love the clarity of language that it gives, for a concept I’ve struggled to put into clear words for awhile!

I read a really interesting article by Oliver Burkeman, who writes a regular column for the Guardian in the UK, about getting a fresh perspective on the whole issue of (as he puts it) living to work versus working to live. The link’s below but the key bit for me is:

“[The authors'] main point, though, is that we’ve confused “work” with “paid employment”. Paid employment per se can’t ever be fulfilling, they argue. But work – defined broadly as productive effort, thus including childcare and much else – may be the only source of real fulfilment. In reality, your work and employment may overlap partly or wholly. The benefit lies in making the mental separation.”

He’s talking about a book I haven’t managed to track down in hard copy yet. But I found his comments alone useful food for thought. His article’s here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/14/work-life-balance-burkeman