I once had the choice, some time ago, between working at some really cool places, or staying with the most awesome woman I’ve ever met in my life. We weren’t married yet, we were just dating, but you’d think that this would be a pretty easy choice, right? Who cares about the career when you’ve met such a wonderful person.
“But honey, I really can be an astronaut. All I have to do is spin around in circle and not vomit. I saw it in a move once. I’m so there.”
But it was a lot more difficult choice than that. I was offered the opportunity to work in Washington DC with the United States Patent Office, or the Time Transfer Division, where they have the atomic clock and do all that kind of cool stuff. And at the time, we were, you know, still pretty new in our relationship.
Well, let me break it to you, it was a tough choice. But thank God, I was offered another position here in Houston and was able to stay with that wonderful woman, and now we’re married and have two kids. And I want to tell you, that when it comes between choosing a career or love, you’d better make sure you’ve made the right choice. Because jobs can come and go, but you need to make love matter for life. Here are a couple things to consider.
What Do You Want Out Of Life?
Do you want to have a job that won’t necessarily be there, but will provide you some excitement and some skills you can build up? Or would you rather have a partner that will help you grow as a person, internally and external, for the rest of your life? And that is true whether or not you have a job, you have a cool job, you have a boring job–you’re able to move around and go places, and it’s much harder to find the right person than the right job.
How Do You Think Your Partner Feels?
If you’re with someone right now and this is a choice for you, why don’t you ask them what they think? Maybe they’Â?Â?re open to going with you to whatever job is available wherever it’s at. Or maybe that they’re of the same mind, where, hey, it might be best to go our separate ways here. Now hopefully that’s not the case, but you’ll never know what you can find out unless you actually seek that information and partner with your partner.
Can You Work Something Out?
After you have that discussion you’ll have a clear understanding of what’s on each other’s minds and what possibly could be worked out. Do you move to that same area? Do you get married now, have a couple kids, and then plan to do that later? Or is there something else in mind? This is where you get down to the nitty-gritty details and see what will work best and pick a plan. Should be relatively simple once you have things out in order, spread in front of you to look at.
Be Respectful – Pick One Or The Other
If it really comes down to you not being able to make a decision on your own, or you not being able to come to a conclusion together, don’t drag it out. Show some respect and show that you really love the other person and yourself. Don’t keep making excuses to drag each other around and leave your hearts on your sleeve and you ultimate ambitions never fulfilled.
You do have to make a choice, and you do have to show that you can be a person that really cares to help that other person live a full life and have the confidence to know they can go do other things without having to be drug along too.
Let Love Decide For You
Choosing a career over love can be a very dangerous thing. Sometimes it probably should happen, but most of the time, love is always going to trump anything that comes across. When you’re figuring out the way you want to go, figure out what you want out of life, how your partner feels about the situation, if there’s anything you can work out, and know that sometimes you just have to make a decision to be respectful.