Whenever we meet someone, we often ask, “So, what’s going on in life?” But what we usually mean is: What do you do? What is your profession?

Today, our identity has become inseparable from our profession. Other people see us through our job titles, and eventually, we start seeing ourselves the same way. In the process, we drift away from who we are and become trapped within the status attached to what we do.

Because of this identity, people often end up feeling inferior. when someone is going through a struggling phase and working as a watchman, a peon, or at a roadside restaurant, how much pain must they feel? The reason for that pain is not the work itself. The real reason is that society has decided that some jobs are “big” and others are “small.”

We often say that all work is equal and that no job is small or big. But ask yourself honestly: do you truly believe that?

If that were really true, then why do we instantly show more respect when someone says, “I’m a professor” or “I’m a doctor”? And when someone says, “I’m currently working as a peon,” “I’m a clerk,” or “I’m a waiter at a café,” we avoid eye contact, speak differently, or hesitate to even introduce them to the people around us?

Ask yourself: is your behavior the same with a watchman as it is with a Police Commissioner? Is your tone and attitude the same with a bank manager as it is with the peon working in the same bank?

If the answer is no, then somewhere deep down, you too are judging people by their professional status.

Instead, I want to leave you with 3 questions for self-reflection:

1. Is your entire identity and sense of self-worth built around your profession?

2. if your career ended tomorrow, what part of your identity would survive?

3. Imagine that you were the peon, the waiter, or the watchman. How would you want people to speak to you, treat you, and acknowledge your presence? Now ask yourself: do you treat people in those professions the same way?