Off the home row
You ever notice when someone is frustrated they type only on the home row? asdkfjasdlf style. Its like if we're frustrated we just move around the easiest keys to press. I'm frustrated and I don't know where the keys are.
Over break I read two really good books. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, about the 1996 disaster on Everest and High Exposure by David Breshears. Both excellent. Both about mountanineering and what pulls people toward something as ridiculous and illogical as climbing to 29,028ft, the troposphere. Both books resonate somewhere inside me. Its about personal challenge.
I'm frustrated with a lot of things right now. All related to what I do from 7:30 to 3:00. On one hand I've got this new enthused idea that each day is special and shouldn't be wasted. On the other I'm not happy. Problem. Solution? I don't know.
All accounts I can read from mountaneers on Everest say that nobody enjoys the short walk to the top. And by short walk I mean 13,000ft drudgery of a march through wind, cold, and ice from Base Camp to the peak. Sure people enjoy some aspect of the climb but on day 4, sumit day, nobodys chipper and happy. Even veteran climbers have to force themselves out of bed at midnight to make the last ascent of the excruciating climb. Above 26,000ft your intestines shut down b/c of a lack of oxygen. It feeds on itself for energy. They call it the "death zone." Often climber return with a 20% loss of body mass.
I kinda feel that way. The question becomes how do you balance a "don't waste a day" philosophy with being miserable at work?
A. Find something else that doesn't make you miserable
B. Find a way to make work less miserable
C. Suck it up and waste the next 163 days of your life
D. Find meaning, value, and happiness somewhere else like spearfishing, cycling, or some other cheap activity.
Paul "not in a good place" Murphy
You ever notice when someone is frustrated they type only on the home row? asdkfjasdlf style. Its like if we're frustrated we just move around the easiest keys to press. I'm frustrated and I don't know where the keys are.
Over break I read two really good books. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, about the 1996 disaster on Everest and High Exposure by David Breshears. Both excellent. Both about mountanineering and what pulls people toward something as ridiculous and illogical as climbing to 29,028ft, the troposphere. Both books resonate somewhere inside me. Its about personal challenge.
I'm frustrated with a lot of things right now. All related to what I do from 7:30 to 3:00. On one hand I've got this new enthused idea that each day is special and shouldn't be wasted. On the other I'm not happy. Problem. Solution? I don't know.
All accounts I can read from mountaneers on Everest say that nobody enjoys the short walk to the top. And by short walk I mean 13,000ft drudgery of a march through wind, cold, and ice from Base Camp to the peak. Sure people enjoy some aspect of the climb but on day 4, sumit day, nobodys chipper and happy. Even veteran climbers have to force themselves out of bed at midnight to make the last ascent of the excruciating climb. Above 26,000ft your intestines shut down b/c of a lack of oxygen. It feeds on itself for energy. They call it the "death zone." Often climber return with a 20% loss of body mass.
I kinda feel that way. The question becomes how do you balance a "don't waste a day" philosophy with being miserable at work?
A. Find something else that doesn't make you miserable
B. Find a way to make work less miserable
C. Suck it up and waste the next 163 days of your life
D. Find meaning, value, and happiness somewhere else like spearfishing, cycling, or some other cheap activity.
Paul "not in a good place" Murphy
posted by Paul Murphy at
3:42 PM
2 Comments:
Why do you feel so frustrated in teaching? Surely it is not as bad as what happens in consumer electronics retail at this time of year. Some days there it feels like I am pulling teeth with as much force as possible and then extracting the pitifully small gold fillings to try to break even.
The highest bit of churn as to teachers comes during the first three years of teaching. Teaching is rough. You are at a point where how things are going is normal even if it feels hideous.
What to do? Finding an avocation would be the first suggested possibility. The second possibility I can suggest is not pretty.
I suggest spending the next period of days contemplating what it is you are called to do in life. Make the best of what you can in American Samoa and seriously think about what you are called to do in life. If you feel like teaching is not the best place for you, what might be? Why might it be that way?
Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you want to continue this discussion.
By
Anonymous, at 1/12/2008 12:06 PM
Being unhappy in your job can be very frustrating - but sometimes its that unhappiness that pushes you to figure out what you really want to do - and motivates you to find a place you can do what you love. I know you're stuck there until your contract ends - but Stephen was right - this is the time to really think about what it is you don't like about your current employment and what you really want to do.
Re-invent yourself - it's very freeing and a lot of fun.
By
renee, at 1/12/2008 4:12 PM
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