Does A Job Give Meaning To Life?

I have stumbled upon this concept many times in my travels along the tubes of the Internet. Does a job give life meaning?  And/or does a job control your happiness? 

At first glance, people may think that there is an obvious connection between a person’s job satisfaction (do they like their job, etc.) and their overall happiness.  After all, you spend more of your waking hours at work than anywhere else.  It would stand to reason then there is a connection, right? According to the Brazen Careerist, (A job does not give life meaning » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk ), one doesn’t really have anything to do with the other.  This web site has some very interesting and thought provoking articles that I would encourage you to read at your leisure.

In my mind, the trick to the whole thing is that you really need to mentally un-hook your personal self from your job.  There have been many times when I’ve wanted to quit my job. Wasn’t “happy”, didn’t like my boss, etc. And it often bled over into my personal life (kick-the-dog syndrome). Penelope’s opinion is only YOU can make you happy and its a when given lemons, make lemonade situation.

This also feed into the Attraction Principle, upon which the hit movie and book “The Secret” is based.  When you’re unhappy and negative, you attract “bad” things.  When you’re upbeat and positive, “good” things come to you.  Your happiness is up to you.  The ball is in your court – are you going to play ball or sit on the sidelines and mope?