Just because you can do something does not necessarily mean that you should be doing it. In this post we’ll explore this concept of capability versus pursuit.
Sometimes we are able to do something, but whether it is the right thing to actually pursue it, is something to consider. Capability does not necessarily mean that you should be pursuing something. Permissibility does not always mean that you have to pursue it.
Life is a series of seasons.
The season in which you find yourself, will guide you in knowing whether you should be pursuing a capability you may have or whether it should lie dormant during a specific time in your life. Sometimes you may never use the capability directly, but instead you may be implementing it indirectly in your life.
Let’s make this a bit more practical.
Therapeutic reflexology is a holistic healthcare modality and therefore different areas of your life may influence other areas. It is not uncommon for your emotions to affect your physical wellbeing or your physical stress to affect your emotions. Today, we’ll take this to a different dimension; let us consider your career in this discussion.
Your career is one of the seven human dimensions I identified as part of a holistic approach (Scheepers, 2003; Scheepers, 2007).
When completing high school, you often have no idea what you would like to do as a career after school, but due to life circumstances you end up studying something; whether this is formal education at a university or college or on-the-job training after you found a job, is irrelevant. You may be one of the lucky ones and knew exactly what you wanted to become while you were still in school and you may have been able to make it a reality and to study it after school. You may have fulfilled that dream and even entered that career.
Others are not so privileged and they fall from one job to the next in an attempt to figure out what they would like to do as a career. In the process they may have studied various short courses or even longer study programmes.
With this in mind, think back of what you studied in your lifetime? Now the question in today’s post becomes relevant; just because you have studied something, do you have to pursue a career in that field? This question is up for debate and there may be various opinions about this.
You may feel that because you spent the time and money to study in a specific direction, therefore you have to pursue a career in that field. You may feel totally different and believe that just because you have studied something, there is no reason to force yourself into such a career; instead you may use the knowledge you accumulated to in a totally different field or in an out of the ordinary manner.
To make this discussion a bit more personal, let me tell you a little bit about something I studied in the past that I’m not directly pursuing a career in. In 2008 I graduated with a Bachelor of Theology (B.Th.) degree from the South African Theological Seminary (SATS). I really enjoyed the studies, especially when majoring in Apologetics and Practical Theology (Pastoral Counselling) that are practical subjects and can be used to directly help other people.
I always wanted to help people and that was one step on my journey in accomplishing this dream. Today I practice as a therapeutic reflexologist in private practice and I am not actively pursuing a career in the ministry or in the church environment, because I feel that I am living my dream by helping people through therapy in a private practice environment.
Does this mean that I wasted time and money in completing a B.Th.-degree if I am not actively pursuing a ministry career? No, definitely not. Just because I studied theology, does not mean I have to pursue a career in the field and become a minister. Just because I have the capability, does not mean I have to pursue it as a career.
However, the B.Th.-studies has been valuable to me in my career as therapeutic reflexologist in the sense that it taught me how to value people, how to treat people with love and without judgement; it taught me how to accept people for who they are with their diverse backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, genders, religions, sexual orientations and values. Each person is a unique individual and to truly value this within a holistic perspective means that the person should be understood within his or her everyday environment. Past studies I did that has nothing to do with therapeutic reflexology, are helping me to understand people better and to help them more effectively through my therapy of choice, namely therapeutic reflexology.
Offering a truly holistic approach to healthcare means that the therapist should sincerely understand the patient. Accomplishing this effectively may involve delving into past knowledge, skills and studies in order to be the best possible therapeutic reflexologist the patient needs at a specific point in time.
When a therapeutic reflexology patient sits in front of me, I practice within the scope of practice for therapeutic reflexologists from my years of training, experience and expertise in the field, but I may draw from previous non-relating studies (like the B.Th.) to ensure excellent people skills.
Just because you can do something, does not necessarily mean that you should be doing it. You need to determine what season of life you are in and what you want to accomplish in this specific season and you may have more clarity whether to pursue something or not.
This post does not seem to be directly therapeutic reflexology related, so why is it on this website? Well, it is directly related. Let me explain.
Your career is one of the dimensions making you who you are and if you experience stress in your career, your emotions and body may be negatively affected. If you are in a career where you feel unfulfilled, your emotions may be all over the place and it may lead to your body getting out of balance. That is where therapeutic reflexology can offer direct benefit to you; helping your body and emotions to get back into homeostasis (or balance) so you may think clearly as to whether you want to include some past acquired skills into your present life or whether to let it remain dormant a bit longer.
Therapeutic reflexology is a holistic approach to healthcare offering a great form of therapy that is non-invasive, very relaxing and may assist you in calming down and clearing your mind in order for you to make wise decisions into the future. This may lead to you answer the question of this post effectively:
I can, but should I?
References:
Scheepers, C.A. (2003) The Exploitation of Practical Sociology as Counselling Model for Application in a Christian-Holistic Founded Practice. Unpublished Ph.D.-thesis. Kempton Park: Commonwealth Open University.
Scheepers, C.A. (2007) Holistic Wellness: A Christian Omnibus for Whole-Person Wellbeing. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.
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Christo A. Scheepers: Therapeutic Reflexologist
Dip.T.R.(Cum Laude) [IARAMT]
AHPCSA: A11945
Pr. No.: 1080000737453
Tel. 072-800 7243