I had this thought a while ago....am I doing the career that I choose...or...am I doing the career that was expected of me?Well, for a large proportion of my life, I was doing the one that was expected of me. Now...this does not neseccarily relate to the 'job' itself,but to the career expectation, that of....good job, good pay, nice house, nice car, nice tv.....nice things...you know how it goes. But, wheredid this expectation come from? It would seem that it is something that is drilled into us at school and from our peers, from TV shows and films.It is an easy was to control us, give us rigid pathways of what is expected from us. If you don't follow they path, then you aren't as good as  someone else who did. But where does this path take us? From School, to University, to a graduate position, to an office job, to 2 weeks holiday, to 40 years crawling up the ladder, a bigger house, car etc, then retirement, then death. But is this right, shouldn't we allow people to excel at what they are good at, let them be creative, explore different avenues, try things out. How do you know at 15 if you want to be a brain surgeon? and conversely what is wrong with being 35 and saying, actually I don't want to be a brain surgeon any more?So was I happy? Fulfilling my expectation....sitting in my nice house, with my nice things....well....no! In fact, I was very unhappy, I worked and worked and worked, doing something that I didn't really enjoy, and as a result, I went out and brought 'things' to make me happy to take away from the unhappiness of the work I was doing, which meant that I had to work more, to pay for the things that I brought....a classical catch 22 situation. But as I tried answering the questions, such as, what woulkd you like to do, what is your perfect day? I was kind of stuck, I didn't know, I want to do many things, and please don't get me wrong, I do want to work, I do want to contribute, I don't want to sit on my backside watching TV, I want to do things that fill me with purpose, something which an office job never could.So then I took the step away, I stopped worrying about what other people thought of what I was doing, and just started doing stuff that appealled to me. It has taken a long time, and it has been very hard (I won't lie about that), and I have (and still do) find myself having to dipping in to things which I don't like, but I am much clearer and happier, I don't have so many 'nice' things, but I have important things. I don't have loads of free time, but time filled with doing things I enjoy.It is real difficult to give an answer to the question 'So what do you do?', as I do so many things now. It would seem like we are conditioned to give an simple answer, e.g. lawyer, doctor etc and then people can put us in a box based on their expectations. How do you deal with someone, who one day is making films, another volunteering, running their own little buisness? It is hard, but I know who I would rather talk to!So, how do you break away? Well it isn't easy, it takes time, it takes thought, it takes courage, but you can do it. Taking baby steps is the way to start living the life that you deserve!Peace