What does it mean to sacrifice something, and is there happiness as a result of the sacrifice? Sacrifice comes in many forms. In the military we refer the "ultimate sacrifice" as someone giving up their life in the name of service and duty. Parents sacrifice their personal time to be with their children and do things children like to do. Employees sacrifice their patience, time, and sometimes happiness just to earn a buck or two. How do we balance our daily sacrifices and maintain happiness in our lives?
First, we're going to look at happiness. Happiness is an inward feeling that requires a self reflection on what really makes you happy. We can be happy and not even exude any sign of outward appearance of happiness. We can even be happy and not know it. It can a warm and calm feeling or it can be an over excitement of joy and everything in between. When it comes to feeling happy about our sacrifices that we make we have to dive into a deep reflection on the cause and effect on our sacrifices.
Secondly, we're going to focus on two main causes of personal sacrifices: Work and Kids. Both causes require lots of personal time to be wasted and consumed. Patience, happiness, sanity, relationships can all become sacrifices when dealing with work and children. How do we bring back that happiness and rejuvenate our souls for the next day?
When it comes to work, I always think back to an analogy my father once taught me. When he would enter a new work environment he brought with him a certain amount of coins (figurative coins). These coins represented his self worth. And for each sacrifice he made (aside from the typical work schedule) he gave up a coin. This was a metaphor about his personal investment in the job. Sometimes the job pays out and can rejuvenate his pocket with more coins. That pay out was happiness. He invested his self worth into the sacrifices of the job in hopes of a payout of happiness. However, if the payout never came and he invested all his coins, he knew it was time to move on.
Work takes a lot from us. In return, aside from money, we should expect some sort of happiness in what we are doing. With happiness we are able to be more resilient and can rejuvenate faster from the daily grind. Ray Bradbury said, "Love what you do and do what you love." I don't always resonate with that quote. Many people do and it's easy to feel happy with your work when you follow his advice. That's just it though, it's the easy way out. The reason I wouldn't follow Ray's advice is that I wouldn't want to jeopardize the love I have for what I do.
I loved playing the Trombone in school. Band was my passion and I was in every band there was. I shocked my teachers and even some of my peers that I wasn't going to college to study music. Putting on a performance was fun for me...to just have fun. I knew that I would hate performing in a band under the stresses of strict education requirements and playing for a salary. I didn't want to end up hating something that meant so much to me growing up.
I'm a communications technician and a very good one. I know a lot and the one thing about my job is that I hate technology. It's fun to figure things out and manipulate and be creative, but honestly, technology stresses me out and frustrates me to no end. If a computer or radio doesn't play right I just want to throw it out the window. However, I am so good at what I do that I make a very decent salary doing it. What keeps me at my job? The puzzles, the problem solving, the traveling, the people I meet, the people I work with all stimulate the senses of happiness and rejuvenation I need to deal with the parts that I hate. I fell into this role because of the military. I had an interest in radio technology but never thought I would end up making a lifelong career out of it. So, I like to say, "I love what I do and I do what I hate, and it's everything in between that makes the day great."
For me to tell someone to do something they hate is just silliness. My career experience is completely out of the norm and isn't going to be the same for anyone else. My main point is the happiness. It's not about doing what you love. It's about whether you're happy with it. I love the people I work with, because they make me happy being at work. I love the problem solving, because it stimulates my brain. I love the traveling, because I just love traveling and eating abroad and finding a McDonald's in every country I visit. I like technology, but only when I get to create with it and if it plays nicely. I found a good niche and it had nothing to do with loving to work with technology.
Stay tuned for my next chapter of Sacrifice vs Happiness - Children.
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