By Ray Rock

That is the million dollar question and one you should think about and consider very carefully. If you have just left one of the educational facilities looking to launch you're working career. There is a very important question that you must ask yourself and that question is, "What do I get out of my career?"

Unless you find an occupation that you love and are enthusiastic about, you are on a never ending treadmill going nowhere, only becoming more and more disillusioned. For want of a better word you are just marking time until you can retire. In the meantime, you will grow to hate the occupations you try and everything associated with them. Which can have a knock on effect, not only in your working environment but also in your social life as well? To have a full and rewarding life you must find a career that is the right one for you. Looking forward to going to work to gain valuable experience and knowledge. Experience not only in your working environment but in life in general, willing and eager to learn something new everyday, that will stimulate your mind and broaden your prospective of life.

So what are these important factors that make up your career?

The first and obvious benefit for yourself is the wage you collect at the end of each week or month. But should that be your main and only consideration.

The answer to that question is a big and resounding NO!

There is a very good and logical reason for the above statement. You may find a career that pay's you very well, but AT WHAT COST TO YOURSELF? It is no good having a career that pay's a great salary, if getting that salary exacts too high a price from you. That high price can come in a number of ways, but the main two are stress and long hours. Each one of these can have a dramatic effect on your health, and believe me if you lose your health then everything else pales in significance. Stress and long hours are two different issues but more often than not go together like hand and glove.

Stress

Only recently has stress been recognized as a disease by doctors and employers. Stress alone accounts for millions of lost working hours every year. Stress brought on in any form does not appear like a cold or flu. It is more devious than that and creeps up on you mainly without you knowing it, until it is too late. Stress takes it's toll in various ways like, making you bad tempered flying off the handle for the least little thing. You can't sleep properly so you are continually tired, you go off your food so don't have a balanced diet. This can result in you turning to drugs or drink to help you cope, and unfortunately it can help for a short period. However all you are doing is replacing one problem with a bigger one. Because you can become an addict to either the drink or the drugs. From this point on unless you get some help you are on a downward slide to oblivion. Which can result in you loosing your job, a break up of your marriage, trouble with the police or in extreme circumstances suicide? Every occupation regardless of what that might be has a stress factor, unfortunately that's part of life. It may not be the job that creates the stress, but getting to and from your place of work. For example stuck in rush hour traffic on the roads or railways. Your boss or immediate supervisor giving you a hard time, your work environment, your shift patterns anything at all can cause you stress. The secret is to find a career that the stress factor is at a level that you can cope with easily. If you love and enjoy your work then the stress factor will not play a major role.

Long Hours

Is very similar to stress, the only difference is you are continuously tired, but the end results can be the same. The other major factor is because you are always tired your powers of concentration are at there lowest. This loss of concentration can lead to you having an accident, be it at work, at home or in your car. But it doesn't stop there your lack of concentration could also put fellow workers, your family or other people at risk. Simple everyday things like a car accident, one minute you are driving along thinking you are totally in control. But because you are tired your powers of concentration, observation and reflexes are not as they should be. The next thing you know you is in an ambulance being rushed to hospital. However that is not the worst part you could live but your family or friends may not survive the accident. Look at Christopher Reeves one day superman the next day confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Oh! I can hear you say, "That will never happen to me". Unfortunately this is real life and accidents do happen to all of us and when we least expect them. To take the argument a step further, say your career is in one of the emergency services; i.e. the police, fire brigade or ambulance. These services very often depend on fast reaction and quick thinking to save lives. If you are tired and not giving the job in hands one hundred and ten percent concentration. Then you are not only putting the lives of the people you are trying to save at risk but your own and your fellow colleague's.

I know it would be great to earn a good salary, so you will not have any money worries. You will always have money (if you don't waste it and save accordingly), for holidays, nice cars, clubbing and a good standard of living. We would all like a big fat pay check at the end of each week or month. But as the old saying goes 'money is not everything'. It is no good having a big salary if you are too ill or tired to enjoy the benefits. So think carefully what is it you want out of life and what is the cost you are prepared to pay to achieve it. Another point worth remembering is how do you earn that great salary. If it is through working overtime this can bring a new set of problems for you to cope with. The obvious being you has to work longer hours, which I have covered above. You can create a serious problem with overtime by bringing to life a money monster. Which believe me once you have created it can take a long time to get off your back. The way you create the money monster is by living off your total wage; i.e. your basic wage and overtime combined. Living of your total wage is all well and good, until the overtime stops or you are off sick. Then you find yourself in a situation were you cannot meet all of your commitments, which can easily result in you ending up in debt.

So you see there is a lot more to think about other than the monetary side of things. That is if you want a career that will not only give you the job satisfaction you should be seeking. But will also not ruin your health or get you into debt.