Why Your Job Is Not Your Identity 

The holy spirit sent this video my way on this day 😔

It drives me crazy when the first thing anyone ever asks is "what do you do", you just KNOW they are judging your importance off of that. I just ignore that question, a person is SO much more than a job.

I am a bicycle deliveryman. I ride my bike around my city and deliver sandwiches. I enjoy it enormously. But that's just a cover for being a son of the Lord. My real business at this time is living out the creed, the two great commandments, the eight beatitudes, and the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as a single person and to get better at doing so every single day.

"Jobs will come and go...invest in your family." Thank you

I tell people that "I am in transportation. I have an office with a view, and I drive a 400k vehicle." I am a city bus driver. ;-)

I needed this video…I lost my job after 10 years and I’m struggling. Thanks so much

Thank you Bobby for this. My job very recently went and I'm adjusting. Wouldn't be so terrible if there were no debts or obligation to children attending high school and university this coming fall. If you can say a prayer for me and my children that would be a comforting gift. Thank you and God bless.

A very interesting reflection. As a career firefighter I find it difficult at first to not associate myself with my job, it is such an integral part of who I am. In the fire service you often hear vererans say "Being a fireman isnt a thing you do every third day, but a way you live every day." I believe this to be true. But it is important to remember that it is who I am that drove me to choose my vocation and then this particular occupation.

Speak with your whole body speaking with passion. Hands are part of that.

Thanks so much for this video. It can be hard to separate your identity from your job because it is just what society emphasizes.

The hands game introduction made me laugh-out-loud. Awesome video. Women can also make the same mistake about jobs. This is just my experience, don't think this is the rule, but I've met many women who decided not having children to pursue a career and have become so obsessed that their health is badly affected. I would say our current times demand we live for our jobs. And we thought only men had that idea, but many women of different ages have also been following this trend and comprimising their own happiness as well.

I’m a secretary and when i get asked the inevitable “what do you do” my face falls a bit and i get ready for the pity eyes. Some people actually are speechless and I almost feel like they want to say “i’m so sorry”.

I SO needed this, thank you for addressing this topic! God bless!!!

I'm glad he mentioned "lumberjack" as a manly job. Maddox would be pleased!

Thanks for this message. Sometimes (most of the time for me) work feels like such a grind with nothing to look forward to. I'll try to open my heart to this way of thinking because a person shouldn't lose hope everyday.

I saved this video on a list years ago, and came back across it tonight when I needed it most. Thank you for what you do!

Not only what someone's job is, but how many hours they work, is used to "rank" people sometimes in the U.S.. To say it's spiritually destructive may be an understatement. Thank you for this video and God bless you.

I needed this and also I needed the laugh from your hand accents 🤣❤️

Thank you I enjoy your videos.This is an important topic. This is the reason men ,in particular , hang on working, and do not want to retire.Identity is invested in their work ,and they do not know how to structure their time or what they will do beyond work. Invest in your family is the take away message.

I’m currently in the process of discerning a career change , so this video came at exactly the right time for me. It really puts things in perspective. Thanks so much!

I really needed that right now ,god at work 😅🙏👏

This is especially difficult for people "inheriting" family businesses 🙈 thank you for this great video

Excellent video :) Being a mom is the most rewarding & challenging vocation/"job" ever ;) I agree we are Children of God 1st & it's important to live out our faith in our daily lives - at home, at work, & everywhere in our life's journey!

Its so true and we judge people on the type of job they have. As if they are less than them.

I tell people I work for the son of a Jewish Carpenter!

I don't want kids or to get married but I do want meaningful relationships, cool experiences and to give back to my community also to explore spirituality more and always put my health first

I so needed to hear this this week; thank you!!

I start my job tomorrow... I needed to see this.

Very timely. Praised God for this messages. Im in a moment of choosing which course should I pursue and worrying about my financial. Im still blessed and will keep on praying to ask for Gods guidance. Life is beautiful. With my mother and sister. Im never taking things for granted again.

Great video! I’ve been saying this for years! Thanks for sharing and God bless!

Thank you for this video Bobby 🙏🏼🙏🏼 very great timing that the Lord has through you

We are kings and queens of Our Loving Father in Heaven. We are high priests, sisters and brothers in Christ who calls us His friends. We are so much more than worth than the world can offer.

I’m a chick and I lived this for 5 years and grew my career. I got completely side tracked from any purpose in God and just found it all in my job. I left that job 1.5 years ago and I am still trying to figure out who I am without having a large income and job that gave me so much of my worth.

I was just getting despondent about job searching and up pops this video! Thank you :-)

I have to remind myself of this. My husband and 2 of our best friends are all teachers. I'm in retail. Sometimes I feel "less" than them.

Thank you, really needed to hear that last part about transitory jobs.

Haha not just guys, but ALL of Washington, DC!! Great video, thank you!

Sooooooo true!!!..... really needed to hear this.

thank you bobby. praise God

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you Bobby! Everyone today NEEDS to know this..... God bless.

My only quibble with the video is the title. Work should not be our SOLE identity, which I think would be more in keeping with your message. While I was happy with my success in my first, computer oriented career of 27 years, I never really identified with that job. However, I was so very proud to let my second, 13 year career as a police, fire, and EMS Dispatcher define me. I still identify as such, even in retirement. Be that as it may, I had no choice but to enter a period of discernment as I neared retirement. I was lucky to find a new calling for my third act. As I near my end, I hope to become what I was at my beginning, a child of God, but, this second time, with awareness.

Amen! God bless you all!

More people need to learn this and maybe we would have a less impatient, rude and stressed out society it just breeds hatred and disease

This is the most accurate video with perfect timing in my life. God bless you ; thank you Ascension presents

"What do you do?" is a conversation starter that is non-threatening.

Definitely needed this video today. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Very good to keep this in mind daily. Thank you for the message!

Thank you god bless

Blessed video. God bless you and your family.

Needed this, Bobby. Thank you!

Excellent topic, i have a lot to think about.

Critics?!? You do what you do already. It works for you. ☺

Thank you soo much for making this video!! I really needed to hear this!

The struggle is real - hate that question

The Lord definitely blessed me with this video. I really needed to hear this today. Thank you and amen!

As a Hindu, I love this video. Thanks for calling out the “utilitarian” objectification of mankind.

Icant believe theres a video about this god bless your soul

Good talk, necessary reminder. Thank you. Perhaps with your proficiency with hand motions you ought to consider a side hustle as an umpire in the majors? Not that that job would define who you are…

Great topic. Well done 👍

Could Jackie make a similar video for the things women think define them? (though this was relevant for us girls too...)

Thanks for this.

I was really hoping for some jazz hands at the beginning of this video. I guess we will have to wait to be razzle-dazzled.

Thank you.

One of this videos a day keep the demons away.

While I agree with the title of the video, I don't think the reasons given really drove the point home. Investing in your family is certainly important but how does a person work three jobs and REALLY invest in their family? How does a person really even begin a family when they're in a transitional job not saving money but being drained for years paying student loans? Are people really willing to take a risk marrying someone with a "transitional job" waiting around expecting them to eventually get a "real job?" Most young people particularly don't have much other than a job so it makes sense that people who are doing nothing but working struggle with not identifying with their jobs. Saying "work hard" and "invest in your family" these days are almost two things that can't happen together for a lot of people. There are deeper issues that the devil has created that aren't being effectively addressed.

Spot on!

American’s are obsessed with job titles, and how much you make. I am considering moving to another country because I am sick and tired of people asking me what I do for a living and how much I make. They rub their job titles and how much they make in my face. I could care less about my job because I hate jobs and no matter how hard I work I never get big raises or anything and managers come up with excuses on why. Today I just go to work, do my job and go home. Then at home I do the things I actually care about.

Great video Thank you GOD BLESS 🕇 🌹 😆

Sports men/women, actors, actresses, musicians etc...all have large number of followers only because people are in awe of their career...none knows their exact character

Por favor con subtítulos en español. Gracias

The devil screams; God whispers

I have a question that might be irrelevant to this video. The question is i haven't had my communion ceremony because right as I was about to have it I had to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles but I'm working on my confirmation but can I still receive the eucharist I know what it means and why it's necessary I have confessed all my mortal sins and do the confiteor for venial sins that I might forget when I go confess

That intro though

Your job is not your identity..if it is so,,then ,it is like saying an actor/actress is exactly same in character as shown in films

Excellent video! Excellent topic! I feel in our society really feeds off what Job one has really judges what kind of person one is by their job. This is a problem. If one says doctor, people are like "great!" If one says they are a janitor they are like "oh.". Also, in my own experience I have seen where a person job does become their identity. This leaves the family behind and the job or career takes a higher level of importance. I myself am a 20-year-old just finishing up high school and whenever this comes up most people are like "oh, what went wrong.". This is so depressing to hear compared to the response I have gotten from a few people that instead said, "That is great you are putting the work into finishing it!" Thank you for your videos! We need more like this. One of your best! PS. Your friend's hand tip is really good, but may not be you. Hand movements can be distracting and annoying if not purposeful. A Speaker's Guidebook Sixth Edition is full of useful speaking tips! Eagerly waiting for your next video!

To much hands. I'm kind of self employed so when people ask what I do or who I am I never know what to say.

But then in Opus Dei one of the ideas is to be the best at "what you do" as in the workplace, that would seem to recognize that to some extent people "are" what they do. Additionally in most social interactions as you mentioned, people ask "what do you do?" Hitler for instance, he really seemed to be his job description, and Jesus, really seemed to be a rabbi, and He was, among other things. So I would say that to some extent, indeed, your job is at least part of your identity. The distinction to me seems to be that any person is more than the "job" they do, and jobs do come and go, but they are part of who we are, even if only in a transitory sense because they are part of our lives. The situation is that people are more than the job, more than a "career" however most people spend most of their life working and so while it does not define a person in his or her entirety the work would seem to be a vocation. While everyone is a human being and child of God in the ultimate sense, and even in the primary sense, the cash based highly taxed society in which we live makes demands on us to function in a certain socially required way, or we fail. These social constraints which are dictated by the culture at large, and more and more by certain elites and technocrats are very constraining and do indeed warp perspective. Personally, I would say we mostly are just like the story of the allegory of the cave, none of us have actually seen Christian culture nor experienced it on a societal level, probably not since the middle ages and certainly not since Luther. We are impoverished, which is why Mother Teresa said the poverty in the US and the West generally was worse than India, because it is a poverty of the soul, a barrenness of the spiritual in the culture. Even the ancients had more of a sense of divinity in one form or another than today. This is why people do not know who they are. In fact it is so bad they don't even know male from female and therefore cannot see fact from fiction. Hence our 20 Trillion Dollar deficit, child infanticide as a right to be celebrated, and on and on. All sin is a form of insanity, and since sin is so rampant so is the insanity. The blind do indeed lead the blind - one merely has to look at the NYS legislature and the cheers for baby killing. Sin leads to blindness, and you don't have to believe something is a sin to obtain the effects of the sin: blindness. Imagine the sin for the 55 million children bumped off at the hands of their own mothers, how many murderers are there roaming around and even voting. If such a large swath of the female population is guilty of such crimes, what does that say about their emotional state and judgment generally. One can argue about circumstances in general, but the last line of defense of babies is absolutely the mother who literally bears the child like none other. Yes, women are indeed different, and also more culpable for the crime. One can see the screaming hyenas in politics, it is the women who scream for the right to kill, and while many men may sit back or kow-tow to them or many may argue difficult circumstances or pressures, it is absolutely at the feet of women the child sacrifice. So much for suffrage.

With that " Logic " The wearing of a Collar or a Habit doesn't Identify or remind you that you are a Priest or Religious. The Colar and Habit are meant to identify you as separate from the Secular World. It is a sign of penance and you become what you identify as.

ha ha ha ha! I AM indeed my job, my job is all the identity I have. When I lose it, get too old to do it, I'll have no reason to keep on living. It IS my identity, and without it, I am nobody.

You say at the end God loves us not for how useful we are, and also that we shouldn't feel that we are bot valuable if we arw not useful, yet how does this fit with Jesus who says that the vine that doesn't bear fruit needa to be cut off. Or like the servant with the one talent who hid it instead of making more. Both the vine that doesn't bewr feuit, and the servant who hid his talent were not being useful, and this they are bad. I understand God still loves bad peopleb but how do you not attach your value to what you producd, when jesus getd mad at the vine thst didn't produce, and the servent who hid his talent?

I work in a call center... :(

Crisis when retired.

:)

If you didn’t sound like someone was forcing you to make this and put more effort into it you might make better videos. But as it stands, I’ve encapsulated the entire message in a minute of conversation fairly regularly at work.

You need to be more dynamic.