Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

You can call "paradise" whatever you like, Honolulu, the Mayan Riviera, etc. And you can call "hell" whatever you don't like, "Detroit", "L.A.", A small town lost in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

You can call "paradise" whatever you like, Honolulu, the Mayan Riviera, etc. And you can call "hell" whatever you don't like, "Detroit", "L.A.", A small town lost in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Simple... do you desire happiness or money more?

[quote name='VerMan' timestamp='1311709340' post='4840762']
Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

You can call "paradise" whatever you like, Honolulu, the Mayan Riviera, etc. And you can call "hell" whatever you don't like, "Detroit", "L.A.", A small town lost in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Simple... do you desire happiness or money more?
[/quote]



Holly crap, good answer...

[quote name='VerMan' timestamp='1311709340' post='4840762']
Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

You can call "paradise" whatever you like, Honolulu, the Mayan Riviera, etc. And you can call "hell" whatever you don't like, "Detroit", "L.A.", A small town lost in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Simple... do you desire happiness or money more?
[/quote]
But money can buy happiness, right? What if you work in hell earning greens, then take a vacation to paradise?

[quote name='VerMan' timestamp='1311709340' post='4840762']
Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

You can call "paradise" whatever you like, Honolulu, the Mayan Riviera, etc. And you can call "hell" whatever you don't like, "Detroit", "L.A.", A small town lost in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Simple... do you desire happiness or money more?
[/quote]

That's the wrong question. It's whether or not you would spend your day in happiness or your nights and weekends. If you hate your job you probably won't be happy, and if you live in "hell" you might not be happy either.

I'd rather have a job I love in a shithole then live at the beach sorting mail 40 hours a week. But that's just me. I think it would depend on how much I hated my job and what exactly I was doing.

[quote name='tstrimple' timestamp='1311709732' post='4840766']
[quote name='VerMan' timestamp='1311709340' post='4840762']
Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

You can call "paradise" whatever you like, Honolulu, the Mayan Riviera, etc. And you can call "hell" whatever you don't like, "Detroit", "L.A.", A small town lost in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Simple... do you desire happiness or money more?
[/quote]



Holly crap, good answer...
[/quote]Not a good answer. If you live somewhere amazing but your job sucks, you spend 50% of your waking time "in hell". If you live somewhere sucky but the job is amazing, you spend a huge part of your time being intellectually stimulated and challenged... we're not talking about a well-paying job, but a GOOD job.

Tough call really. Depends how much you do in life outside "work" by which I mean not working at work, or coding at home for fun. If you don't like outdoor activities or eating out, amazing beaches, nightlife and restaurants might be a waste.

It's pretty ignorant to believe that you can be miserable half your waking time and just turn around and be happy the rest. Unless you're a zen master, your work life does bleed over to your home life, and if you're miserable there, you most likely will not be able to just turn that off when you get home. Money can definitely have an impact on your happiness, but that only goes so far.

Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

What would you do?

Go to library.

Find copy of book "What Color Is Your Parachute?". There are about 30 editions spanning several decades, pick any fairly recent edition. It has been a best-selling book for over three decades for very good reasons.



Look in the ToC. There are two chapters you are interested in. Most editions have this in the appendix, others have it near the final chapters:

First critical chapter: Finding Your Mission In Life.
* Read it.
* Learn from it.
* Understand that it is a life-long effort.
* Remember (or perhaps learn for the first time) that your work does not define you, and work is not your first, or second, and generally not even the third or fourth or even twentieth most important mission in your life.

Second critical chapter: The Flower Diagram.
* Read it.
* Re-read it.
* Re-read it again.
* Do some soul searching.
* Start the exercises, using close friends and family members for help
* Do more soul searching.
* Work on the exercises some more.
* Do even more soul searching and sometimes-painful realizations about yourself.
* Complete the exercises.


At the end you will have a "flower diagram".



It takes about 30-60 real life hours to complete. Don't rush it.

It is a highly personal, intimate, powerful, and very unique profile of things you want in your life, that you probably didn't even know.

When it is finished, you will can clearly describe:
* I want to work with these values/goals/purposes unique to me,
* using this special knowledge unique to me,
* using these skills unique to me,
* working in this people-environment,
* espousing these values,
* in these working conditions,
* at this level of salary and responsibility.


(Out of all of them, salary and level of responsibility tends to sort near the end of the list.)



Then you will have a really good picture of your life.



A few decades ago when I worked with people in a career center, I watched people struggle through this. When they were finished I saw many people brought to tears either that they never knew the truth about themselves and it was a joy to finally know and accept, or more frequently, that they had wasted so many years following a path they hated.


Do the effort (it is not insignificant), and you will very likely have an perfectly clear answer.

Suppose you live in "paradise" but you have a job that you don't like...
On the other hand, a BIG company, let's say... Intel offers you a position, the job of course looks more promising professionally (after all, it's Intel) but in "hell"

Interesting, I feel I am in that situation right now. I recently moved to paradise[sup]*[/sup], but my new job is pretty boring. They pay me well, my colleagues are nice, but I just miss the 'intellectual' challenge. And with spending 40+ hours in the office every week, it's starting to bother me. I haven't made up my mind yet, and I'm going to evaluate the situation in the coming months, but it's a tough one for me personally.


[size=1]In my case Barcelona, Spain. Not exactly a tropical island, bit I really like it here

It's pretty ignorant to believe that you can be miserable half your waking time and just turn around and be happy the rest. Unless you're a zen master, your work life does bleed over to your home life, and if you're miserable there, you most likely will not be able to just turn that off when you get home. Money can definitely have an impact on your happiness, but that only goes so far.

Totally agree... I was thinking the same, if I live in a nice place (currently Oslo, Norway) but my job does not like me, this affects my personal life and at the end of the day, I'm not completely happy here either.

[color=#1C2837]

Interesting, I feel I am in that situation right now. I recently moved to paradise[sup]*[/sup], but my new job is pretty boring. They pay me well, my colleagues are nice, but I just miss the 'intellectual' challenge. And with spending 40+ hours in the office every week, it's starting to bother me. I haven't made up my mind yet, and I'm going to evaluate the situation in the coming months, but it's a tough one for me personally.
[size=2]In my case Barcelona, Spain. Not exactly a tropical island, bit I really like it here
[/quote]

I was in your shoes, I lived in the sunny Barcelona for 3 years of my life, I still miss it so much... but the last year I had a 50 hour/week job with a minimum wage of around 1K Euros, that just sucks! At the end of the day I left that "paradise" and went back to my personal "hell" (Mexico) to work for a better company, better paid (even more than I was earning in Spain, spending half)