A blog reader recently emailed me this:

“Ok. I’ve got a question for you that I was hoping to get your opinion on.

I have two different career paths that I am looking at right now. On the one side, I have a job that I can make a modest income doing. It gives me lots of variety and I do love changing things up a lot. It also allows me to determine how much I make so if I work harder at the job I can make more money. We’d be able to live in a modest house and keep our standard of living. However, I don’t like the job. It does very little with my passions and talents and every day I come home from work grouchy and grumpy and it takes half the night to calm down.

On the other hand there is a job that I believe was made for me. I’d be helping people change their lives by helping them change their minds. I’d be in an environment where I learned new things that I am extremely passion about, and I would master new skills, and have better control over my mind. However, it pays less than half of what I can make at this other job. Even if we budgeted it would not pay enough to support my family at the standard of living that we have now. My wife is 7 months pregnant and we are looking at having our 4th little girl in October.

I’m working at the first job right now, but I am really leaning toward the second. In keeping with the ONO spirit what should I do?”

This is a tough question, but here was my response:

In ONO, I spoke about how you have two options in your work life, one, you can do what you love for work, or, two, you can work so that you can do what you love. I have always chosen the latter option because work almost always turns into work eventually. To be honest, I would be a garbage man if it paid well enough.

Work is a vehicle to provide the opportunity for me to have the things in life that I have to buy, things like my time, my home, my vehicles, etc. As long as the work doesn’t disrupt my family life or compromise my morals, and as long as it provides a future exit or builds toward those “greener pastures,” I will do it.

I have never made a step down in income in my working life without a defined path to a step up which would be achievable within a reasonable amount of time. It comes down to weighing your options and making a pro and con list. My intent in the response to your question was to put parameters around that decision that will make it easier to consider the implications of that decision, but ultimately it comes down to you.

I heard two things in your question that deserve comment. First, you said that your occupation made you grumpy in your home life. I see two options here, quit, or choose your attitude when you get home. You have control over both. Second, you said that you can make as much as you want with hard work. Working harder and saving the surplus for a period of time gives you more strength, or ONO, in the exit from that negative environment. I have always tried to make occupational or business transitions from a place of strength because this allows for better decisions. It never goes as well as it could when we make decisions based from a place of “have to.” Sure, sometimes we stumble into a good thing, but these decisions are better made from a well-thought-out position of choice. The best time to hunt for new income is when you don’t need it.

If you’re asking my advice, it would be to work hard, save the extra money you earn, and look for a better third option while you’re gaining strength, strength which will give you more choices.