Thinking About the Future

I am thinking about the future today. 

While part of my practice is to try to live my life more and more in the present, it is sometimes necessary for us to plan for what is to come.  In previous posts, I have noted that my wife and I are working, one hour at a time, each week, toward simplifying our lives so that we can relocate in 2011. 

Part of that plan is giving me a problem though.  I have considered several different options for that time period when I am transplanted - going to school for clinical laboratory work or acupuncture, for example - but I have not hit on something that I am really passionate about doing. 

Yesterday, I read a guest blog on Zen Habits about bad work, good work and great work.  As I noted, I have been stuck firmly in the bad/good work category and have done very little great work, work that was fulfilling and that I was passionate about doing.  Part of my commitment to myself this year is to work out for myself what that great work might look like and, to that end, I asked my teacher about it last night. 

His suggestion was to go back through my work history and look at jobs I have done.  What did I like about them?  What did I detest?  As I look at my previous work, I should see some patterns begin to develop and be able to list out some of the things that I am looking for in a career.  My feeling is that, when I am done and have had a chance to percolate, the pieces will fall together into something I have never considered before. 

I am excited about this process but also, as is usual with me, filled with some trepidation.  If I discover some thing or things that I really want to be doing then, in the next step, I will have to move out of my hunkered down, defensive, survival mode and go do them.  Right now, in this present moment, I have to remember Lao Tzu's words that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.