Which job should I do? 

Convener(s): Gerard bell

Participants: Liza, Laura, Robert, Tilly and one or two others.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

The enquiry could be, equally, in inverted commas so that it becomes a direct question: “Which job should I do?”

How can I make it, this question, this choice, Iess angsty?

What is the angst about?

Does it lie within – juggling ‘the needs of life’ against the artistic pursuit   ?

How you project (or justify ) what you do (decide) to others is an important part of the ‘problem’.

Is it…about Balance in your life? Or is it about prioritizing?

It (could be ) about following your gut.

But it is difficult to hear your gut.

It is possible sometimes to do both, or can you negotiate to do both?

There can (may) be regret afterwards.

“I went to two weddings on the same day to be at both friends weddings, and felt I was at neither properly.”

Why do things come along at once?    ….. It is a law of nature, perhaps.

(So the question is how to live with this law)

The Meslow Heirarchy – a hierarchy of needs – was suggested, which may be seen as a pyramid. You resolve the ones lower down the pyramid and this enables you to address the ones, fewer, nearer the top.

As artists we reverse the pyramid, and take it that the ones that need to be supported, that are higher up, as the basic.

Some off the ones lower down the pyramid, nearer the base( finding the means to live, and others) might ‘provide’ for you to be creative.

But possibly one might feel trapped by  the pyramid of need. You have accepted the need to earn a living, for example, and now you are “trapped” by that.

[“ Wanna Fight?” intervened here]

Perhaps I shouldn’t be doing this one….or I “should” – that this (whatever) is the most important thing to do; the proper thing to do, the right thing to do.

There are psychoanalytic tests (questions) that can reveal if you had done the right thing, or gone on your path.

Can you ease that? (The angst, ..see above) Put that dilemma in a place to make it more easy?

[ This is a problem in life, - this problem of choice, of ‘which one?’ – and a consistent (perhaps) condition for performers. There is a distinction to be made or rather different formulations of the question – an occasional one as to which job or career I should embark on as opposed to free-lancers when it is about which piece of work and this may happen many times. Is there help with this question?]

You can use cards, write the alternatives on them and set them beside each other – if you have that one then you can’t have that other one – and see what that means; what doing “this” means doing without; or “which makes you feel better”.

Doing this you might find the hidden depths, which lie beneath your choices that you may not recognize (or have discredited – they are wants, too, but you are so  used to them).

The hidden depths of your priorities.

Or which are your rules?

Rules can give order and they can also set you up for failure, (by not meeting them).

You regret the things you did not do, rather, generally, than the things you did (not always valued) 

“Am I too old?” … is this related? There is a link. This is the last phase of my life. Where am I in my life now?

What is my plan for the year? To know what my plans are by the end of this year.

[ The question and the way it is phrased clearly acknowledge an ethical dimension, which may or may not be appropriate. To the original questioner, at least, this sets against the simple and robust solution – “what do I want?” , another question “but, which is right?”.

There is another question inherent in the question concerning jobs that one should or should not do; which jobs one would never do. This discussion was not opened]