I've always insisted on finding work I enjoy greatly. When I've found myself complaining endlessly about it, I've figured it's up to me to make whatever changes I need until I stop complaining and start enjoying again.

Sometimes the joy doesn't happen right away, and it's necessary to work for a while accumulating the skills or documentation that will qualify you for the fun stuff. Mostly it's possible to make even the early stages themselves interesting or enjoyable, but that's an internal process--it's done by changing your attitude. That's a key point: it's not usually the work itself, but the attitude you bring.

In my earlier career in the construction trades, the learning curve involved lots of backbreaking labor. In middle age I switched to a professional career which required 5 years of sitting in classrooms and taking frequent exams. In neither case was the preparation/learning phase exactly a barrel of laughs, but both were endlessly fascinating and "fun" in their own ways.

I'll acknowledge that the world economic crunch has made a lot of this more difficult. Most of us came of age during remarkably slack, easy times (although we may not have recognized this until it was over). Those days are largely gone now. I'll also acknowledge that the kind of mobility across different vocations I'm describing is more common in the USA than in Europe or the UK. But still....

Executive summary: I believe you're supposed to be reasonably happy, doing something you love doing. I believe it's up to you to find or create the job, lifestyle, and inner strength which allows that to happen. I'll add that it's a rare individual who'll accomplish this while living rootlessly on the road for long stretches. You might need to discover this last bit on your own.

Mark

Oh Dear. I'm drawn to this thread.
My answer above is <I don't work at all. For whatever reason>
I'm retired.
But when I worked I would have ticked <Yes. I'm doing my dream job and I'm very happy>

And it all just 'fell in my lap'.

I only ever worked for one employer, and was introduced to that through a visit to my school from a 'Careers Officer'. Without him I would never have thought of this particular company.

Thereafter I took every opportunity that came my way. Whether it was for change of job, promotion, or training.
I only once looked for a change of job on my own initiative. My job at that time had become 'routine' so I found another, including promotion.

All my other job changes/promotions came about through introductions by work colleagues, or through internal 'head-hunting'. On each occasion I still enjoyed the job I was in, but always took the new opportunity.

There were only two opportunities that I ever turned down.
My boss at the time thought I should try for a company scholarship for an engineering degree (my qualifications at the time were just short of degree level). So he put me forward and I gained a scholarship, but not the top one. It covered all the time off, exam costs, NI contributions during time at university, and employment at the same level between terms and at the end. But no salary while away. I think there was a small bursary.
I applied to universities and received 2 offers.
But, I decided my career had advanced rapidly enough that a degree wouldn't be beneficial for the future, particularly with the loss of wages, so I declined.

A few years and a couple of jobs later, I again had a boss who thought I should try again for a better scholarship. He said he'd give me a huge recommendation. That worked. I won one, as before, and would be kept on half pay during the term time. That's about as good an offer as is possible. And I got offers of university places as well.
But, again, with my career having progressed quite nicely since the last time, I decided I liked the work too much to have all that time on half pay, so turned it down.

And however I look at it, with all the hindsight I have, those two decisions were exactly right.

I continued to get fantastic jobs in areas I never ever imagined I'd find myself. And what a brilliant employer - right up to the time of retirement!
When all my retirement papers were on their way to the 'personnel dept' they crossed paths with papers they had sent to me.
Those papers told me I had reached levels of responsibility in areas of sufficiently advanced technology that I had been put forward to join a 'senior programme' that would lead to an MA! On full pay!
Well, when the 'crossed paths' had been sorted out, I had agreement to start the MA even though I was sticking with my retirement. I completed a third of it before my last month at work.

So why did I retire and not continue in this helluva job?
Many years previously it had started to take me abroad. To many European countries and about nine states of the US. I ran projects in Australia and Hong Kong, but never got to those places. Engineers working for me went instead as they had done all the manufacturer's training courses.
So travel had got in my blood, and the retirement package was very nice, thankyou. I could have continued the MA at Nottingham University but would have had to pay for it. So no decision really.....

This leads me to firmly conclude, in my case at least, and as I said in Ted's other thread, it's who you know not what you know. Making lots of contacts (which just 'came with the job' in the areas I was working in), who then steered me further on my career (and in turn I steered others) was far more useful than the offers of university degrees.

And I wasn't alone. The company employed 250,000 people at the peak. And all us retired types now gather together for big reunions more often than is good for us. The main topic of conversation and reminiscing is always the same, how absolutely and fundamentally lucky we've all been to have worked together it what must have been the best collection of jobs in the world! We acknowledge that absolutely!
And also, we all have absolutely no qualifications whatsoever for giving our children or grandchildren any advice at all when it comes to jobs and careers and universities in today's situation. (And that includes T. Ted!)

Yep, dead right. I think that was the 'lubricant' by which I made progress in my career.



In my case, I threw it in at a time when I could stop work and have sufficient pension to live comfortably. If I hadn't got some 'bug' whether it be travel or something else, maybe I'd still be working. There are people who look towards retirement with shear abject horror, even though they have a big fat pension, usually because they have little or no interests or social life outside of work. And there seems to be quite a few of them in my experience.
The company I worked for all that time ran comprehensive 'Retirement Counselling' programmes. Not something I ever needed, thank you very much.

Last word (I hope).
To anyone reading this who's looking forward to retirement to have a quiet life, travelling or not:
During my career, every single retired colleague always said, "Be warned! After you've been retired for a day/week/month, you'll be so busy you'll never ever know how on earth you ever had the time to go to work!"
Absolutely 100% true......

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town

I'm very happy. I started out working 5am-6.30pm seven days a week (had 7 days off in 5 years at one stage) for nine years in my own business. Various economic ups and downs and then a major accident meant at the end of nine years I had enough for a 30% deposit on a very modest house after selling the business. Not really as planned. That was 20 years ago. Now, at 52 years old, I'm still living in a another very modest house, in another business of my own, I now work an average of 2 1/2 days a week as a specialist photographer which takes me over much of New Zealand. It is enough to keep both me and my wife in food, clothes, good and a great life. I have about 15 bikes in the shed, a 4WD, caravan and a small boat, a very small holiday place (one room cabin in the mountains) and a bike trip overseas every year or two. I think I am VERY lucky.

YMMV.... but that's life.

Cheers

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

If it was fun they'd make you pay to do it, not the other way round!

Andy

What a great thread! ..

For what it’s worth, I like my job and love the people I work with. I have the choice of employed or self-employed status. I insist on self-employment, as this way I can call the shots. I get away for 2-3 month travel sessions twice a year, with usually a 10-14 day foreign ‘getaway’ break in between.

Six years ago I retired early (age 52), with all debts paid off and a few quid in the bank .. then spent 4½ years doing very little - apart from travelling here and there. The travel sessions aside, I didn’t really like my lifestyle during that period. It’s too easy to grow lazy when there’s not much to get up for in the morning. I even feared premature dementia might set in because I wasn’t using my brains enough (what little I have!)

Look, work is good in my opinion, even a privilege when you’re in your late 50s and get the chance of a second crack at it .. especially if you like the work you do; and even better when it fits-in and around your travel plans.

In summary, I’ll happily carry-on working until I’m 80 .. if I can get away with it.
.

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Right Way Round ...