conversation that I have had with a good friend on several occasions about defining oneself by what one does. She is an incredibly intelligent woman who is very good in her field. She is heavily invested in her career, as I know many folks are.
One day, a number of years ago, I said something along the lines of she should not define her life by what she does for work. I said that because I saw her as so much more than her job. She is a wife, a mother, a friend, and much more.
That comment from me, appropriate or not, started an ongoing conversation between us that still comes up from time to time. It is never brought up in a negative, confrontational way, but more as a topic that is thorny, complex, and probably not resolved in either of our minds (certainly not in my own). I have been thinking about this idea lately, and I am not sure what I think about it anymore. Should we define ourselves by what we do for our career? I am not asking rhetorically, but out of genuine curiosity.
The calculator helps me to arrive at the following numbers:
8736 –number of hours in a year
2920 –number of hours spent asleep, if one sleeps 8 hours a night
5816 –number of hours that a person would have leftover in a year after accounting for sleep
2000 –number of hours a typical person works a year with 2 weeks of vacation
So the average person spends about a third of his or her awake time at work. Factoring in drive time for most people, unless working from home or telecommuting, I would guess that the average worker spends closer to 40% of his or her waking hours dealing with work. So does that 40% define the person? Or is the person defined by the other 60% that takes place away from work and work related things?
I fit into many categories myself: husband, father, friend, teacher to name a few. But more and more, I am wondering if the teacher part of me (professional identity) takes on a larger role in my life and my overall identity than I once thought it would or should. I really need some help thinking about these ideas, so I would appreciate any and all comments to help me (and others?) sort through things.