If someone was to confront you with a question, “What is the greatest occupation of all time?” What could your answer be? Maybe, look at the lower grade version of yourself? What was it you wanted to be? What about now as you gain maturity? You have enjoyed the doom and wrath of unemployment since your graduation several years ago. Could you stick to the same career if you were to be allowed to make a few steps backward?
When I was a little boy, I kept vacillating between careers and occupations. When I saw a teacher I admired, I saw myself as a teacher in the same line. When in attendance in a powerful spiritual program, I felt like I, too, should do that. Another time when I saw something else that excited me, I found myself changing again. I think this was a good method since it was sincere and impact-based. However, it was based on a premature judgment of a child and influenced by what others were doing well, which could not necessarily reflect my areas of gifting and talent.
Advancement to the High school brought a new experience with it. It seems almost an unwritten but practiced law that all top students took medicine, Engineering, or a Law degree. This was further exacerbated by the examples we had in our compulsory novels. For some reason, all the best performers were handling cadavers or Newton’s laws of motion. Because I was a student of no mean academic prowess, I thought I would do well in the school of medicine and stand tall with my stethoscope, resuscitating lives and setting things in order. Looking at it now, after going through the school of Economics, I wonder at the gamble and myopic look of life.
With a little growth and experience, I see the debates we had as little boys and girls more of a “who is more learned between a lawyer and a cobbler?” As a little boy or an impetuous teen, I would have given many reasons in support of a lawyer. But a few years of going through the school of life, from whence we don’t graduate, have shaped my opinion a bit. I’m not discouraging you from holding a different opinion, because you are a student too in the school of life. A lawyer is more learned than a cobbler only in law. When it comes to mending shoes, the cobbler is the learned friend. Whatever you are doing, give your best. We all need your services.
All these notwithstanding, I am still strangely resilient with my campaigns for the greatest occupation of all time. I maintain my discourse for a somewhat paradoxical reason and am confident that we are still getting somewhere. This is not a scientific theory, but we must understand the assumptions herein to move somewhere.
There are a lot of definitions of the word occupation in the dictionary. However, for the sake of this article, the word occupation should be taken to mean ‘an activity in which one engages in.’ This divests the limitation of viewing occupation through vocation-rimmed glasses. Whatever our hands find to do is our occupation. You may not be employed or engage in some scholarly pursuit, but you are still relevant because you expend time on several things daily. What is the greatest thing you do which everyone has can access?
My perspective
While I am bombarded with lots of options, I must settle on one thing. This occupation will solve the world’s problems to a great degree.
How do you find the world today? Do you like what you see around you? I know of some people who deliberately do not watch the news. Their reason is that the noise and endless acts of violence reported daily spoil their day. I don’t question their stand. However, this will not change anything; instead, they will just be blind to the fact that their neighbor has killed his wife or that a campus student who stays next door has committed suicide over a toxic relationship. Keeping ourselves ignorant of disturbing news does not change anything.
Behind all the cases that often steal our sleep is the proof of wanting mental stability in the world today. Most of the millennials and even the generation X arrives at suicide, even before considering possible solutions. Most people reach for the divorce letter before trying out other ways that can help keep the union standing. We cannot withstand the normal, inevitable stresses of life. All these have a great deal to do with mental instability. I’m not in any way belittling your painful situations, but rather, I’m realistic to the world around us. There is some degree of unpleasant doses that life serves which cannot be avoided and which we must learn to handle.
The greatest occupation of all time, therefore, is learning how to maintain mental stability. We must deliberately ensure that we acquire the best possible mental capabilities possible to human beings. Activities involved in preserving our mental nerves in shape and usefulness are of immeasurable significance. We must therefore engage deliberately in maintaining our mental health. This is not a walk in the park. The reason is that mental health is affected by many factors, most of which are beyond our immediate control.
We have inherited and cultivated tendencies to battle. We have addictions to keep at bay and external factors of fellow victims who bombard us with negative externalities. Therefore, we must take seriously the privilege to guard those under our control from destructive activities. As a parent, teacher, or guardian, let us be merciful to those under our care by releasing them to the world as men and women of stable unbiased mental composition. We can make it a little easier for the coming generation by granting them a noble bequest of nobility that can withstand the test of time.
Whatever your calling in life may be, remember there is another assignment of preserving your mental health. This work cannot be delegated. Let us do all that we can do to ensure we remain mentally stable.
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