A career? What for? (June 2012)

I wonder, how does one choose the (ideally) right career? And what are the criteria to say it’s right?
For me, I think I will know when I find it, if:

• I will wake up happy to go to work (what the hell, this will also happen on Monday, after a 6-months stay at home with small children!!)
• I won’t be able to stop thinking about how to make things work better, find a way to do my job better and so on
• I won’t care how the others look at me when I reply to the question ‘what do you do?’
• I won’t think (too much) about the payslip I receive at the end (or beginning) of the month
• … (to be completed)

I wonder how many of us choose our careers without taking into account the last two points – what others think about you (like: “are you out of your mind?!”) and how much you get paid to do the stupid thing. And I wonder this because I’m considering a dramatic change of career on both accounts and I’m totally scared about these topics. I should NOT care about these points, right? But one could argue that having two kids and some mortgage to pay might count for the last one… People live with less than what I would gain. And I would still have a husband earning quite enough to compensate (if he doesn’t leave me after the “are you our of your mind” question). However, do I want to live with less?
Actually, we get used to a style of life and it’s tricky to get out of it, even for something that matters, and even if we have a career that does not satisfy us. Gaining X or X/2 makes a difference in our minds, go figure
Would you do something that is really important to you and you’re passionate about for half your salary? Or you’re ok with going to work just to earn something that seems ok to you, even if you hate every moment of it?