What is a dream job?

How would you answer this question?

What is your dream job? It was presented to me in a small group meeting this past week. So I decided to answer. Instead of thinking of a position, I thought of the specific tasks I enjoy doing in the workplace.

 I compiled a list.

I enjoy fulfilling requests.

I enjoy figuring things out.

I enjoy being in charge of my time.

I enjoy setting my own schedule.

I enjoy starting and completing projects.

I enjoy serving.

I enjoy planning events.

I enjoy coming early before others arrive.

As I came up with this list, I wondered, where did the term dream job even come from?

Growing up, I couldn’t wait until I turned 16 and got a job. It didn’t matter where I worked, and most of my friends were the same way. We all got jobs, and jobs meant money, and money meant independence.

 It was so much fun to drive to the store in the morning and buy a newspaper and coffee. It made me feel like an adult. Likewise, buying gas felt powerful because it was me who purchased it.

 Contrast that with today. It can be a drag to purchase gas because the price is too high, work can become a grind.  A day doesn’t go by where someone is telling me I can have more, be more, get more, and search for the dream job.

 I kept reflecting and began to think that a workplace is a place of contribution and not a place to gain worth and identity?

 So I have to ask again, what is a dream job? Why do we need to have one? Is it enough to just have a job? To start there? To contribute and give from wherever you are located?

 If you are in an abusive or hostile work environment, this isn’t directed at you; I hope you find a place where you are needed. But for the rest of us, what is a dream job? Do we even need the term? Is it manufactured to create income streams for coaches and consultants to constantly search for a dopamine hit but never satisfied? Or is there value in the search? Am I not sure? What do you think?