What Programmes Our Personalities?

Have you got what it takes?

That’s the question being asked in advertising trying to attract Western Australians to train as teachers.

You know something? I don’t have what it takes. I could never be a teacher. That’s not how I’m wired. I’m very happy that some people are wired that way and I have a real respect for those who choose teaching as a profession but it’s not something I could ever do or be.

When I saw the advertisement on television this evening I was reminded of a post I wrote almost three years ago titled How are you wired?

In the post I recounted catching up with an old neighbour. Until I was 16 our family lived in a house in the Perth suburb of Scarborough. The Browns were on one side of us and the Johnsons were on the other. Glenys Johnson heard me on 98.5 Sonshine FM during my regular weekday morning radio programme. She wondered if I was the boy she knew years ago so she rang up and asked if I’d ever lived in Colin Road. From there we chatted about families and old neighbours.

At one point, Glenys said that she knew that one of us Olsens was interested in radio back then. She thought it might have been Erik, one of my brothers. “Erik?” I could never imagine Erik wanting to work in radio.

That got me thinking. How is it that the five Olsen kids, brought up in the same home, could all go on to lead such different lives? Sure, there are lots of similarities between the siblings, but there are also some big differences.

The thought of being a high school maths teacher leaves me cold but my brother Chris has been doing just that for more years than I can remember and he’s great at it. Why would a guy in his late-forties still want to be involved in youth work? I could never do that but Erik does a fantastic job working with young people.

My eldest brother trained as a fitter and turner and is now working in a management job and my sister was a nurse. All such different job choices and not one that I’d choose for myself, despite all growing up with the same parents in the same home.

How is it that we are all wired so differently?

I am constantly amazed at seeing people derive such great job satisfaction from a range of jobs that would send me crazy. We are all so incredibly different.

I love what I’m doing and I’m more than happy that God wired me the way he did to enjoy working in radio. I’m also glad that he wired others to be technical geeks, cleaners, carpenters, builders, doctors, pilots, fence installers, gardeners and so on.

How about you? How differently are you wired to those around you? Are you currently working in the job that you’re wired to do? What are some of the jobs that you see others enjoying but know you could never get excited about?

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