The Perfect Job

I wonder, does anyone ever really like their job? I mean, in the sense that they actually enjoy being there, and would choose it over leisure activities, at least some of the time. I'm not sure I can imagine a job that I would prefer to go to over, say, sweeping the floor or clipping my nails or some other mundane task like that.

Right now I'm sure there are people out there who would say they genuinely like their jobs. Even people with jobs I would consider really hard and socially stressful, like youth camp counselor or reporter or public relations agent. But these are the sorts of blandly happy people who are just a lot more sunny about everything. I'm not sure I can trust their pronouncements, their happiness scale is so far out of whack from mine. These are people who run marathons for fun and give blood all the time, and are good at teaching martial arts to four-year-olds.

I always think that it's just a matter of finding the right job, that fits my personality and skills just perfectly. So I make lists of things I like doing. The lists usually have things on them like this:

- talking to and interacting with (gentle) animals
- cleaning, in moderation
- reading fiction
- being outdoors at least some part of each day
- being around people who are smart, but not competitive
- watching animals
- learning about structure/function in the natural world, and taxonomy
- writing, in moderation
- not having to be "on" - aggressive, competitive, concerned with hierarchy, politically aware, ready to defend policies, etc.

So this would basically qualify me to be some kind of Victorian naturalist or maybe run a nature center in a secluded location that no one visits.

I pretty much like my current job except it doesn't pay very much, and it does sort of carry a requirement for me to be "on". Which I am working on, but I'm awful at it. And afterwards I just go home and feel like I'm trying to shake some kind of poison out of my system from having had to act that way. So maybe I just have to accept that work is something you don't like doing (that's why they pay you), and just get through each day with the minimum of friction.