A Question Of Preference: Career or Family?

At this point of my life, the decision between career and family is difficult due to the complexity of my current transition.  The flow of my life is centered on the cogent tendency of completing my education to begin a career while ramifying from the family I ripened under to the one I would love to handpick and develop with.  Both contingents are in flux as what I am doing now leads to what is to come.  However even if I were able to ace my part with flying colors, I am left to still be dependent on another’s approval to complete my mission in its entirety.  Therefore it is a rigorous process to conk out the higher priority as my best effort may not be good enough for each case.  In either situation I would prefer to be a primary option first.  That would provide the secondary route where whatever I have done will be accepted and pursued by someone.  The burden of proof is whether I can take the offered opportunity with gratitude or continue the dogged ambition of only getting what I originally set out for without considering to settle for anything construed to be less.  Then you face the battle of pride versus rejection and perception versus reality.  Begin the procedure comparing what has happened with what your vision was and ponder the question again as the results become nonvolatile and fixed.  Sometimes you will find that all you worked and hoped for can inevitably be revealed as evanescent.  When nothing lasts forever, life actually gains the ability to teach the lesson that complacency is, in itself, a questionable attribute to have.  Contentment can encompass not only sustaining but also enhancing what you have already attained.   Two paths are enabled in both points of this discussion.  The first can be just refining your role and capabilities on the job or delving into a novel and scintillating appreciation for your spouse or partner.  It can also address searching for that long awaited promotion or expanding your family in number by marriage or childbirth. 

If everything was fair and neutral then I guess the question just comes down to which I want more.  A family can provide motivation to reach certain plateaus.  A career, similarly, imparts evidence that you are a valued member of something.  If one were to exist without the other that would tip the scales in the favor of a career.  You could still use the income to socialize, invest and enjoy yourself minus the additional responsibility of maintaining more lives.  A home would not remain a happy one if a family could not be supported by their chief breadwinner.  Nonetheless I know sometimes I would rather return to headquarters where I am loved and adored by those that mean the most to me.  I suppose a different perspective could allow ample time to spend with family after a proud retirement from a successful career.  The balance is confounding as one can always look like the other if you wanted it to.  Honestly I could watch the pendulum swing on this topic for eternity.  In my mind, it is just like asking whether the chicken or the egg came first.  You can make a justifiable argument for either while a sufficient counter is always available to suggest the opposite as the predecessor.  Maybe it would have been simpler to say “I don’t know” until my life is directed one way or the other.  A holier view may well let the issue be resolved by prayer or through faith.  Then I would not have to answer the question since a sanctified providence had an indicator in making the determination with me.  And finally trust and believe that the outcome was the only decision conceivable.