What's the question at the back of my mind?

I think at this point I’m still trying to figure out what questions I would like to ask. Hopefully, the right questions to help me to move forward…

I feel that there is a question at the back of my mind that is related to ‘work and happiness.’ Today, reading a bit further into an extract of Alain de Botton’s book ‘The pleasures and sorrows of work’, I learned that one of his arguments was that our society believes that work should make us happy.

Perhaps I feel the need to understand my own choice of studying graphic design. After working for over five years in a different field (IT), what made me choose to study graphics?

During those five years I enjoyed the IT work but thought and felt that I wanted to be doing something else. Something that I could engage more with – hopefully with all my soul!

The funny thing is that, even now that I’m studying graphic design, I still don’t feel ‘fulfilled’. So, am I a victim of this pressure that work should bring happiness? Additionally, can fulfillment be compared to happiness? What fulfilment is this anyway?

Should I expect work to bring me happiness?

I’m technically not working with graphics, I’m studying it; but I would still expect some sort of fulfillment. When I think about creativity however, I do get excited.

So, have I perhaps killed my passion for creativity by turning it into ‘work’ (in the bad sense of the word)? And if I had, can the damage be repaired?

It would be interesting perhaps to speak with people who work in the field of ‘creativity’. Are they content with what they do? Do they still find creativity attractive?

But as Ken Robinson points out in his book ‘The Element’, people are creative in different ways, like baking cakes, in their business etc.

Doug