In what may well be the philosopher and poet John O’Donohue’s best book, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, he points out one of the traps of a “successful” career:
Those trapped in the bland middle region of respectability are lost without ever realizing it. This can be a trap for those addicted to the business world. Many people in business operate only with one side of their mind: the strategic, tactical, mechanical side day in and day out. This becomes a mental habit that they then apply to everything, including their inner life. Even though they may be powerful people in the theater of work, outside of the workplace they look forlorn and lost. You cannot repress the presence of your soul and not pay the price. If you sin against your soul, it is always at great cost. Work can be an attractive way of sinning deeply against the wildness and creativity of your own soul.
Many of us look at our career initially from the perspective of our financial health; then, as we get older, from the perspective of our physical health and our mental health. But how often do we think about our career from the perspective of our soul?
Here again, I believe it’s crucial to periodically (at least every 5 years) consider if we are fulfilling our ikigai—the confluence of our passions and our abilities with what the world wants and what the world needs.
If not, we may be damaging more than our mental and physical health; we may be damaging our soul.