Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Saying "I Do" to your career

I’ve been working on a project for my Advertising Strategies class about brides-to-be, building a consumer profile. Thus, weddings have been top of mind for me this quarter, and it got me thinking about marriage and how it applies to my life right now.

No, I’m not engaged. Not even close.


I’m talking about my chosen career path.

We’ve all heard people warn us not to be married to our careers, to have a life outside our work.
But I tend to disagree. In researching marriage and weddings for my project, interviewing several brides-to-be, reading countless wedding magazines and researching the history of weddings, I’ve come to realize that maybe being “married” to your career isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Think about it. The way you choose your career path is perhaps similar to the way you pursue any relationship. You want it to make you happy, give you a reason to wake up in the morning. You want it to challenge you, push you to be your best.

And of course, just like in a relationship or marriage, there will be times when it lets you down, when you wonder where you would be had you chosen to do something else. You’ll have rough days when nothing seems to be going right. You’ll make mistakes. But at the end of the day, you’ll remember why you chose your career in the first place, and remembering that will make the difficult times seem a little less gloomy.

So, to the love of my life, public relations, I guess it’s for better or worse!
Think my analogy is too extreme? Do you agree? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

3 comments:

Nicole Bersani said...

I love this post and completely agree -- you have to love your job or you're going to dread waking up every day for work. I don't know about marriage...but I'd say the same type of thing applies, haha.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree! At this point in my life, PR is the love of my life too...and it's definitely for better or for worse! Even though I don't have a husband, I can imagine wanting to hang up the phone on him...just like how I want to hang up the phone on my PR tasks some days. At the end of the day though, I remember why I deal with the bad stuff...the good stuff makes it worth it!

Ashley Showen said...

Thanks girls! PR for life!