If you’ve been on instagram in the past week or so, you’ll almost certainly have seen a trend going round in stories where people detail the past jobs they’ve had.
For many reasons, I love these sneak peeks into people’s lives: mainly, I’m nosey af, but also because a lot of them sound whimsical and wonderful (I used to work in a bra shop whilst at uni, and once whilst on the tills I commented at my colleague’s skilful wrapping of what were, essentially – and I say this as someone who owns them – large, spherical objects. “You’d make an excellent cheesemonger!” I remarked. “I used to work at Neal’s Yard Dairy,” she replied.) It’s also been a lovely reminder, on an app that so often flattens reality and squashes the idea of ‘success’ into a box that’s always just out of reach, that so many of us have had longer journeys than instagram shows.
It was also, I imagine, a lovely activity for the people posting, to be able to reflect on how far they’ve come, or to realise there’s been a running thread throughout what previously seemed a wiggly career, or to see how skills they had learnt in each job are skills they used in their work today. Because I’m deep within the small business corners of instagram, I also saw so many people talk about how it got them to their dream day today, which is so wonderful to see.
I was lucky enough to go full-time self-employed at the age of 22 (with the help of a loan, to be perfectly clear), so I’ve not had loads of jobs. I was a waitress, a street promoter, a shop assistant, a bra fitter, a milkshake shop seller and a bridal assistant. But the list I’m really interested in is the jobs I would love to have.
I’ve worn my multi-hyphenate identity as a badge of honour for a long time – anyone who knows me knows I adore Emma Gannon – but I’ve always treated them as under the banner of being self-employed. This list gave me pause to think of it differently: what about people who want to do multiple different things? Who don’t have one dream job, but multiple?
I’ve been working my way through Wishcraft by Barbara Scher (which I found via The Hyphen, to my point above), and one of the things she talks about is the idea of living 5 lives, and what you would do with each one.
“I don’t mean if you were five different people,” Scher writes. “I mean if you could be you five times over, and explore a different talent, interest, or lifestyle to the fullest in each one.”
The point of this exercise is to honour all the vital parts of you – because “the saddest phrase we ever got drummed into our ears was “Make up your mind!””, according to Scher. (not to be confused with Cher, who coined this iconic phrase:)
This is a list I’d also love to see people making. For example, my 5 different lives would be, in no particular order:
Lingerie Designer
Gift buyer (on an online marketplace/big department store)
Radio DJ
Supper club chef
Florist
The wider concept related to this Five Lives activity is the idea of getting what you really want, so Scher goes on to suggest multiple ways that you can fit each idea in.
Sequential Goals
“The most obvious way to fit more than one major interest into your life is to concentrate on one at a time and do them one after the other,” Scher explains. She also calls this ‘Switching Horses in Midstream’.
Simultaneous Goals
a.k.a. moonlighting: go for both at once! Scher suggests that simultaneous goals work best when the 2+ lives you’re living are quite different, because then each provides a refreshing change from the other.
Alternating Goals
This ‘pleasant patchwork’ fashion is kind of like school terms, then holidays: but with each chunk of time being of your choosing.
Multimedia Goals
This is where you can combine two or more goals into one - for example, from my list, I could start a podcast about how to buy the perfect gift.
Main meals and side dishes
Alongside these, she also includes the idea of main meals and side dishes, which is the idea that whatever isn’t the main focus stays on the table, but just put to the side.
Though I have my own issues with goalsetting (namely: I’m really bad at it?) I really liked this breakdown, because it’s such a useful exercise to help you think about how you can honour your multiple enthusiasms. Of course, this doesn’t have to be jobs: some of these can be hobbies too.
I asked on my instagram stories for tales of people who’d left one dream job for another, and loved the replies. For example Bronya, who now co-hosts The Business of Cakemaking podcast, followed the sequential goals model as above. She worked in dance for 30 years before moving into cakes — she loved the dance industry and being surrounded by all the glam, and also loved being her own boss and making cakes. “I feel like I’ve had a very privileged life doing things I totally adore in industries I love,” she says. “I still love dance and the theatre and I still bake. It’s a great life!!!”
Kathryn chose the simultaneous approach instead, and currently has two dream jobs on the go. She works as an inclusion professional at a charity, as well as a humanist wedding celebrant.
I would like to point out: I love my current job, and have no plans to leave it (I want to leave it open to morph with me and grow as I grow). But, I think a lot of us internalise leaving a job, or changing career, as a failure, when actually it’s far from that. It’s a sign that you’re honouring one of your other lives, and your whole self can thank you for that.