Passionate employment = Seriously?

This evening we were watching Robert Irvine. You know, the Food Nework guy with the glasses, short hair and I think he is married to a professional female wrestler. He keeps talking about being passionate about something.....passionate about cooking,

Whenever I hear this I am reminded of some classes the cuter half insisted I take when I was unemployed. These direction classes - (soto voce)"What is your passion and what can you do with it." WTF.

It's work people, you go to work and you come home and if you are lucky you come home to people you want to be with. Passion is for the bedroom or when you are with someone like the cuter half who is FUN and enjoys doing things that aren't work related.

"Work's work." this is something my Dad used to say. When I was younger it drove me up a wall. I thought I wanted to do something great but  I never knew what it was.

I have never grasped the "passion at work thing."
Those classes? I would go to them (fortunately they were free so I wouldn't have to go back and demand a refund for wasting my time) and just get pissed off because I was either hearing total tripe about how I didn't know what I liked to do or I wasn't intelligent enough to figure it out.
OK that isn't true but damn it that is what it felt like.

Watching Robert is kind of like watching a freight train just steamroll over a bunch of people who really look like deer in the headlights kind of thing. I am certain he doesn't mean to....this is the character he is playing on the show. But really, the "I am in business and I don't know what I am doing" excuse is just annoying. How can anyone put a million dollars a year into something and not know what they are doing?  I understand that his role is to help but I don't think that a person with common sense is really going to get into a situation like that.

Which is back to the "passion" thing. Oddly enough we are tying to help the boy figure out what he wants to do. He had a passion for cooking, and since he was in this class with what I would compare to a squasher....well he hasn't really picked up a knife or a pan or made anything for anyone. He was told he can't do it and now he is thinking he can't. Sadly, he is at a loss right now. He is watching cartoons and history programs (it's History channel, so some of it is debateable)
To put this in perspective, an Aspie self esteem, largely, is so fragile it is likely to be squashed until the Aspie is feeling more confident and is able to defend themselves without messing up the social rules.
Or the counselor at school perspective of, "Oh it is too hard, just drop it and you can do it later." (?????) so when life gets hard you just drop it and come back to it later?

Which still gets me back to the "passion" for employment thing......this evades me like a million dollars would. -I am just missing the boat on this. I have taken the personality tests and the results are weird. The jobs are just not my thing....
Clergy / Religious Work (Nah....I am not the holy roller type)
Teachers (NO I am not crazy about my own kid at times working with other peoples kids - NOPE)
Medical Doctors / Dentists (EWWWW blood and poop and stuff)
Alternative Health Care Practitioners, i.e. Chiropractor, Reflexologist (touching people, NOPE)
Psychologists (NAH, I am not patient enough)
Psychiatrists (the drug part scares me)
Counselors and Social Workers (NO WAY)
Musicians and Artists (I know 3 talented people, no 10 talented people and I am not one of them)
Photographers (NO I call my own for the important pictues and she is one of the 10 talents)
Child Care / Early Childhood Development (again poop, diapers and people)

I know some people swear by doing their passion and hey that is great for them....But this whole thing, it doesn't work it for me. Not that finding something to do is hard I have always had jobs....so that part is working just fine. It is just the "job passion" thing. To me it is like underwater basket weaving naked, blindfolded using chain mail."

Fortunately the cute one doesn't think I am nuts. He thinks that other people fake it a lot.
I am hoping the cuter half can help the boy figure it out. The boy drives me nuts right now....so I am generally running the other way (not literally)...I just am too exhausted for the drama.

 

Comments

  1. Don't worry about self-esteem. Help him with self-compassion. If the self-compassion is in place and working the self-esteem will take care of itself.

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