The Mrs and The Boy and I went for a walk this morning and at some point along the route, I got to thinking about what I would do in the afternoon while he was napping. “Weekends, as you know if you’re a parent, are built around his sleep schedule.” For some reason I also started thinking about what I would do if I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow. What would I do if I woke up rich?
I don’t mean what I would buy first, or what beach I would jet off to. I mean how would I spend my days if I didn’t need to worry about a paycheck?
That’s not a challenge I’ve faced before, but I did have one stretch, post-Nortel layoff, when I didn’t have a job to go to. In addition to sending out resumes, I spent a lot of time writing in the blog that eventually subsumed into this one “check the archives” and learning more about digital photography and photo editing. I went to Iceland and wrote the daily blog for the Iceland Airwaves music festival and created a “now defunct” Geocities site about the trip, Icelandic culture and music. I also did some volunteer work for the Durham Crisis Response Center and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
I’m lucky enough that my career gives me the chance to do similar things for my work. But lucky is a relative term, because I probably wouldn’t have ended up where I am in my career if I hadn’t learned some of those things on my own.
So I do know what I would do if I woke up rich and didn’t have to work. In addition to traveling more, I’d keep on learning new stuff, developing my creative outlets and offering my assistance and expertise to organizations I believe in.
But here’s the cool thing that occurred to me: Basically, I didn’t need to be rich to do those things. I had more time than usual, since I was unemployed, but even if I’d had a job I could have done some or all of them.
What would you do if you woke up rich? If you can answer that question, it could help you figure out what you most want to be doing in life, and what you want to be doing for a living.
And if you go out and start doing it, maybe someone will eventually pay you to do it.
photo by kevindooley