“Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities.” (Page 85)
“7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.” (Tradition Seven)
Livelihood: Tradition Seven suggests I be fully self-supporting through my own contributions, which can be interpreted to mean I should have a livelihood: something I do that generates income. It is not axiomatic, however, that that need be temporally matched, in other words today’s sustenance need not come from today’s work; I’m not failing in having a livelihood as long as across my life, over the decades, I am fully self-supporting. I’m not back at square one each morning, obliged to earn the day’s wages that day to cover that day’s needs. One needs to develop considerable flexibility in this regard. There are going to be periods of preparing for the future or diversion onto non-earning activities, when there is less earning, little earning, or no earning. These must be accepted. The link between the receipt of resources and the expenditure of time might also not be obvious in the material realm (see below).
Occupation: something constructive to spend my time doing. I believe God wants me to be fruitfully occupied for a good chunk of my time: creation (in contrast to recreation, though recreation is required as well, for regeneration purposes, for appreciation of God’s kingdom on earth, and to recognise the value of existence as opposed to productivity). What I am occupied with is my occupation. There will be several or many occupations, even in one day. The notion that one has one occupation only, in the form of a single, paid job, must be discarded. It is a fiction, a conceit, a function of the perception of the individual as a resource to be deployed in a commercial system whose purpose is merely to propagate, enlarge, entrench, and amplify itself until there is nothing left but itself and its components. One of one’s occupations might also be the source of one’s livelihood, but these could be quite separate for considerable periods of one’s life. There are individuals who are given a stipend or a financial source of sustenance and who are entirely occupied in activities that do not generate income but are considerably beneficial to the world. This is what is meant above, in terms of the link between income (the money received) and expenditure (the time spent) not being obvious in the material realm: you can bet your bottom dollar, literally, on there being a link in the realm of the spirit, however.
Job: a particular form of paid (self-)employment. This is merely a technical term for an instance of an occupation that happens to be paid. It has no significance in the structure of occupation, livelihood, and purpose.
Career: this is merely a plurality of jobs extending over time, in which a course, a progression might or might not be discerned. This, also, has no significance in the structure of occupation, livelihood, and purpose. A career will consist of jobs, and jobs entail both occupation and livelihood. But it is possible to have a career whose purpose is questionable, negligent, exiguous, or undiscernible or to have a career that works against purpose, either by being harmful or by keeping me from purposeful activity. A career can be a nuisance, a placeholder, a monstrous parasite that consumes all of one’s energy merely to perpetuate its own existence. The notion one even has a career—beyond the technical considerations of strategically working to acquire particular skills to deploy one’s energies in particular, useful ways, particularly if identity or value is tied up in it—is a sign that something has gone radically wrong. Self is on the throne.
The notions of both job and career can therefore be set aside as mere technical terms of art.
This leaves us with purpose.
There is immediate purpose and ultimate purpose. Immediate purpose—to make or help something happen in the world that is of benefit or is perceived to be of benefit. Each such benefit, however, exists within a chain of benefits that extend in perpetuity, both materially and temporally. The ultimate purpose might be construed as the aggregate of those chains of benefit. Whilst immediate purpose can be discerned, ultimate purpose cannot: one would need omniscience, including temporally, to see this. It is best not to even try. What is more, the immediate purpose of an activity may seem to be of no or negligible benefit. A sense of pointlessness and worthlessness might set in. But is this legitimate? Since one cannot discern ultimate purpose, and ultimate purpose dwarfs immediate purpose, the apparent lack of utility of immediate purpose is irrelevant. An event or condition could even be manifestly harmful—such as alcoholism—but be infinitely useful in terms of ultimate purpose. The entire good that flows from recovery in AA necessitates the upstream condition of alcoholism. The deployment of events, conditions, circumstances, activities in the Grand Scheme of Things, to achieve God’s ultimate purpose, lies outside the individual bailiwick and need not concern the individual. The individual, therefore, need not be concerned with purpose at all, either immediate or ultimate. What matters is the entrusting of self to God in order that one cooperate with and not confound God’s ultimate purpose (although God is quite capable of folding one’s resistances and rebellions back into the dough). God’s ultimate purpose cannot be jeopardised: submission to God will, however, produce a much more felicitous experience for the individual, including occasional revelations of one’s particular place in the patchwork.
To sum up:
I need only consider how I should occupy myself today. The bulk of this will be overtly constructive activities—creation. Some of this will be recreation—this should be high quality; no activity-equivalent of junk food; the best recreation is active or interactive, rather than the passive receipt of sensory, dopamine-spiking slop. Taking care of activities takes care of occupation. This also takes care of livelihood. Those who are fruitfully occupied will have a livelihood, usually with an obvious connection to occupation, but sometimes without. This must be left in God’s hands. Since purpose is axiomatically taken care of, I need not worry about it. Cooperation with God will significantly improve my perception of purpose, and this will give me a more comfortable ride. But God is not mocked: my life is purposeful whether I like it or not. I will be an example to everyone at all times, including to myself. The question is only whether I am a good or a bad one, and that boils down to submission to God. Surrender to the revealed path makes a good example, and being a good example is considerably more fun and satisfying than being a bad one. My life will be satisfactory one way or another, but only if I surrender will it be satisfying to me. And one can entirely ignore the concepts of job and career beyond the pure technicality of describing how one disposes of one’s time.