The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American Dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.”
I have been thinking about this since President Joe Biden’s visit earlier this month. Whilst, I like the idea of hard work being rewarded and everyone having equal opportunities, I worry that the American Dream also delivers a message that puts career success on a pedestal or encourages dedication to the job at all costs.
Lots has been written about channeling your passions, climbing the ladder and finding the perfect job.
So, I was intrigued to hear about a book called “The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work” by Simone Stolzoff which I think presents a new way of thinking about success and our dreams.
Read on to discover more…
Sinead
This month the President of the United States, Joe Biden, visited Ireland for 4 days. President Biden has Irish roots and his visit included meeting with relatives as well as more formal duties like marking the 25 year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The term “American Dream” was first used in 1931 by James Truslow Adams and can perhaps be summed up with a quote from Joe Biden’s Democratic National Convention speech of 2020; “I’ve always believed you can define America in one word: possibilities. The defining feature of America: Everything is possible. That in America everyone, and I mean everyone, should be given an opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God-given ability will take them.”
Although, he has his detractors, I think Joe Biden is admirable. He is perhaps an example of the American Dream himself as it is believed that when he was just 22 years old, he told his girlfriend that he intended to become a US Senator and then President. His, is not a rags to riches story, as he was from a middle class family but he did overcome the challenge of having a stutter (reportedly by reciting Irish poetry). Also, he has experienced many tragedies in his life but remained dedicated to public service. He has recently indicated that he intends to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for a second term as President despite being 80 years old.
Recently, I listened to a podcast from The Happiness Lab presented by Dr. Laurie Santos. Dr. Laurie is Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Her course “Psychology and the Good Life” is one of Yale’s most popular and has been adapted to be offered as a free resource from Coursera.
The podcast I listened to was from 23rd Jan 2023 (S6 E4). Dr Laurie interviewed Simone Stolzoff about his forthcoming book “The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work”.
For me, this presented an alternative to the constant striving and productivity chasing implied by the American Dream.
Simone likens people’s extreme investment in their work to the type of dedication we might see to a religion. He highlights how much of our identity is taken up with what we do for a living and the dominance it has in our lives. He advises that our attitude should be “more about having an approach that what you do for work is not the entirety of who you are as a person.”
He uses the analogy of diversification of a stock portfolio and urges us to consider diversifying our identities so that we are not all consumed by our jobs.
“The Good Enough Job” is one that allows us to have energy and time for other pursuits. He argues this is also beneficial if we were ever to become unemployed as having other elements to our identity acts as a hedge against the feelings of despair that might arise if we lost the one thing that made up our identity.
Simone interviewed 100 different people researching for the book to try to understand how we could have a better relationship with our jobs. From what I have heard so far, I think it will make interesting reading and I look forward to getting a copy once its released.
“People work all the time, and so they aren’t sure of who they are when they’re not working. But because they aren’t sure of who they are when they’re not working, they end up working all the time.” Simone Stalzoff
“So how do I want to spend the rest of my life, I want to spend as much time as I can with my family, and I want to help change the country and the world for the better. That duty does much more than give me purpose; it gives me something to hope for.” Joe Biden
This is the link to the free Coursera course, The Science of Well-Being, offered by Dr. Laurie Santos and Yale University
Sinead Huskisson 