"...Infusing the mundane world with a romantic vision
Whatever your skills and talents, you are fundamentally a romantic, in the literary rather than the colloquial sense of the term. In other words, you need to know that you are connected to a higher or deeper level of life, and that the work you do is in some way a contribution to that alternative reality. Even if your mind has a strongly scientific bent, you have an inclusive world- view in which mere facts must be embedded, and a devotional nature which requires both science and art to serve something greater. The material world could never be a goal in itself for you; and although you might enjoy the things money can buy, money alone could never give you what is known as "job satisfaction". Your work needs to fire your imagination, satisfy your intellectual curiosity, allow you a sense of contact with life's mysteries, and, most importantly, give you a feeling that you are here for a good purpose. These requirements are not impossible to meet. But they do preclude many spheres of endeavour, particularly those where the chief motivation is material success. You want to feel you are helping the world in some way, or contributing something fine and beautiful to it. Your ideals are extremely important to you, and your work has to fulfil at least a part of those ideals. Without this, even if you are receiving a large pay cheque, you are likely to feel discontented..."

"...A gentle spirit needs gentleness in the working environment
You need to work with people, but are probably better off not working directly for people - unless you are given independent projects and can manage them in accord with your own schedules and structures. This is because the conciliatory impulse is so strong in you, but often conceals resentment and hurt if you don't believe in what you are doing or doubt the integrity of those you work for. You need a gentle, orderly working environment where you have time to think your own thoughts as well as discussing issues with others. Your idealism will never be entirely satisfied because the world is what it is, and you do not have the power to change it in any global way. But you do have the power to bring to your work the gifts of clarity, logic, harmony, and ethical conviction. Probably you need one of the professions, where you are equipped through education or training to manage on your own or with a small team of people; or one of the arts, where you can express your vision freely. You are an extremely refined person, and even if you have developed tough defences through harsh experience, underneath you will always suffer if you work in a field where you are perpetually forced to face ugliness, brutish behaviour, greed, dishonesty, or cynicism..."

"...Needing to shine
Your imaginative, idealistic nature seeks a sense that life is full of vigour, colour, brightness, and nobility. This sense of drama equips you to do well in many areas of the arts, whether as an artist yourself or as a promoter or educator of others' talents. The theatre might be a fascinating world in which to work, and you might also be drawn to fields such as literature, publishing and the creation of your own consultancy or advisory service. The key to fulfilment in all these spheres is your ability to match your own high standards and code of honour with the external working environment in which you find yourself. But you also need to shine. You will not be happy hiding your light under a bushel or acting as a minister to others' needs, unless you get sufficient acknowledgement for your own efforts and creative ideas. If you work as a mere small cog in a huge institutional or corporate system, you are likely to wind up feeling angry, depressed, bored, and frustrated. You need to feel you can eventually, if not immediately, receive recognition for what you do and, more importantly, for the individual you are. The expression of your individuality is vital for you to work at your best, and you need to aim for a position where this can be encouraged rather than stifled in the name of corporate uniformity. You will never take kindly to others robbing you of the credit you feel you deserve..."

"...A compassionate nature needs to help or heal others
Although your gaze is often directed upwards toward a search for the higher meaning in life, you are also extremely sensitive to the emotional undercurrents in your immediate environment, and you respond quickly and openly to others' pain and suffering. You are a compassionate person and are easily affected by the needs and feelings of those around you. This may attract you to the helping professions, because you cannot ignore the distress of others, however restless you yourself feel. Certain areas of the helping professions may indeed suit you. But you need to be careful not to overestimate your capacity to tolerate an endless litany of misery without respite. You need light, beauty, and grace in your working environment; and it may be wise to ensure that, if you are involved in helping or healing work, you work with those who are willing and able to form a co-operative working relationship with you. For example, if psychology attracts you, you might be more fulfilled working in the field of transpersonal psychology than in clinical treatment of the severely disturbed. This does not mean you lack strength, or that you are not sufficiently compassionate. But your eyes are so focused on what is good and beautiful that too much exposure to what cannot be redeemed can drag you down into a depressed state. You need to strike a balance between your compassion and your craving for harmony, beauty, and meaning..."

"...Putting up with the ordinary
Your chief limitation, in terms of seeking a fulfilling vocation, is your difficulty in putting up with the ordinary and the imperfect. Your ideals are extremely high; and although it would be wrong for you to be disloyal to them, you may also need to recognise that loyalty can also encompass a certain amount of compromise and acceptance of human limits. Your romantic vision of how life could be may make you discontented with anything less. This means not only a tendency to be dissatisfied with those you work with, but also an inclination to be overly hard on yourself and distressed when you feel you have somehow "failed" to live up to your high standards. Your ideas and aspirations are wonderfully clear. But sometimes they may incline to the rigid, and here you may need to develop more flexibility and more tolerance, especially toward those who, unlike you, may not be motivated by such a vision. You may need to accept that life will never be quite what you wish it to be; the sense of always aspiring to something more could provide a powerful impetus for your creativity, provided you do not fall into the trap of becoming become depressed when the "something more" always seems to elude you. It is a question of learning to live with discontent while still maintaining your ideals. No sphere of work will ever provide you with the power to wave a magic wand and change the nature of the world in one lifetime; nor will you ever be able to create in form the beautiful images and ideas you generate so easily in your mind. If you can accept this without feeling life has let you down, you will be able to accept the boundaries of ordinary life and still generate the magic you need to feel your life is worthwhile..."

"...Accepting human limits
You are an idealist with a clear vision of a perfect world. This means your work needs to involve you in projects which allow you to contribute to the making of that perfect world - whether through creative work or through humanitarian efforts. However, since perfection is not possible in this weary old world, you will have to learn to accommodate human limits if you want to feel any real satisfaction in your work. You sometimes expect too much, from others and from yourself, and you can easily feel disillusioned or disappointed when colleagues or co-workers wind up having feet of clay and do not meet the enormously high standards you have set. You can also feel a bit victimised if you have been too caught in your vision to notice that you need better boundaries and have to deal with the less attractive elements in human nature. Your strong sense of fairness can sometimes make you assume that life "should" be fair; and if you encounter work practises or individual practices which fail to meet your ethical codes, you might not be willing to find the adaptability and realism necessary to cope. Although your vision needs to be at the core of what you do in life, you need to balance it with a capacity to make allowances for human nature - including your own human nature, which you may be equally harsh in judging..."

"...Communicating honestly
Although you feel things strongly and intuit many subtle levels of reality, you may find it hard to articulate what you think and feel, and even harder to assert your opinions and ideas in a work situation. Part of the difficulty is that you do not think in a strictly linear way, but are receptive to images and circuitous associations which are not easy to communicate in words. This is, in itself, an asset in any work which requires artistic expression or an intuitive level of relating to other people. But part of the difficulty may also be that you are uneasy when you are too direct. Expressing your real opinions defines you as a separate individual and may involve you in conflict or confrontation with co-workers or those in authority; and conflict is something you will go a long way to avoid. The problem is that, if you are not able to cope with confrontation, you will not be able to be honest, and others can sense this and feel that somehow you are not quite trustworthy - even if you are totally ethical in your behaviour and sincere in your work commitment. You may also have difficulty in being direct in terms of what you want others to do, and this can be an enormous problem if you work within an organisation or with a team because misunderstandings and communication breakdowns can easily occur. Clarity and brevity are important qualities to cultivate, and stating things as they are rather than as you would like them to be can help you to avoid many irritating difficulties..."

"...Expecting too much from others
Your idealism is an important factor not only in your choice of direction, but also in the way you interact with colleagues and co-workers. You tend to expect a lot of them as well as expecting a lot of yourself. This has both positive and negative ramifications. On the plus side, your high ethics and emphasis on fairness and honourable interaction helps you to bring the best out of others, setting a standard which may have a powerful effect on your work environment. You want to believe the best of people, and often this belief can be self-vindicating; it can actually affect their behaviour and bring the best of them. But you may also be somewhat of a perfectionist in your expectations, and find it difficult to tolerate or understand the ordinary human power-struggles, rivalries and envious attacks that permeate any work situation and are an inevitable part of any dealings with others. You may need to develop a tougher skin, or more objectivity about human nature, in order to cope with this dimension of your working life. This doesn't mean you should be prepared to turn a blind eye to dishonesty or outright cheating or destructiveness in your working relationships. But too harsh a judgement on others' foibles could lead you to taking a kind of moral high ground" which creates alienation between you and your colleagues, and this might have an adverse effect in terms of how they deal with you..."

Extracts from: CAREER AND VOCATION, by Liz Greene
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