One thing I have come to realize in life is that your best long-term outlet for making a meaningful contribution to the word is your career. Yes, like many people you can contribute by donating money and volunteering on the side, but that not even close as being able to give through the work you do each day. Have you ever come across people you’re always overly concerned about giving money and volunteering, the reason why these people are always overly concerned is because they don’t feel they’re contributing enough through their J.O.B, so there’s a bit of guilt connected to the money they receive.

We humans on whole have a strong drive to contribute, to help make some kind of positive difference in the world, and when that desire isn’t being sufficiently expressed through our work. And this is quite evident here in Dominica, we either feel empty or we look for other outlets to express it – For example our friend’s opinion of us.

If something is worthy enough to you that you feel the urge to donate your money or time to it, I think it’s best to try to convey that form of giving through you career, and not just as something you do on the side. If you find yourself enjoying volunteering and charitable activities more that your career, it means your career is in a serious need of an upgrade or change. Personally I believe that your career should be your best outlet for giving.

Instead of this career/contribution model:
Do work -> Earn money -> Give money/time to worthy causes
Try this model:
Do worthy work -> Earn money -> Reinvest money into increasing one’s capacity to do even more worthy work

“Worthy” is of course is all up for you to decide and what it means to you.

Remember if you’re going to invest so much of your precious life into your career, damn it…make sure that career is worthy of you. Take sometime and look at your work, ask yourself “Is this really who I am?” If the answer is no, please know that there is a “Yes” just waiting for you. You deserve much better than just spending the bulk of your life doing something that doesn’t fulfill you.

When you’re doing work that fulfill you and makes you feel good at the end of the workday, you’ll care about doing a good job. And when you care about doing a good job, you’ll become really good at what you do. And that make it relatively easy to generate a sustainable income from work.

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