what do you do?

Lately this commonly-asked question has been raising other questions for me. 

When someone asks me what I do, I know what they mean. They want to know what profession I'm in, do I have an interest or a marketable skill which makes me unique and that we can use as a talking point to get to know one another. It's a perfectly reasonable question really. 

The issue with this question is that for me, if I answered it the way I know they want me to answer it, I would have very little to say about my job. That is because it does not represent who I am in the least. 

This contradiction has brought up within me a range of interesting, if not a little odd, responses to the question, "so, what do you do?" Some of these include:

"I do lots of things! I love to write, go to the beach, practice yoga, etc etc"

"You mean, what do I do for work? I run the office at a mining company."

"I publish a blog. I spend lots of time reading and studying about issues related to holistic wellness. As far as how I make money? I do administration work."

"My job is administration at a mining company, but my real work is writing about and studying mind-body wellness."

"Ha ha ha....lots of stuff."

Why is it that we feel we need to get to know somebody by finding out about their job? How much does our job actually say about us? 

I love meeting those people who are living the career of their dreams. They can't stop talking about what they 'do' because they love what they do.

However, I know a good number of people who, like me, are off 'doing' other things in their mind when they are at their jobs each day. 

I know it's just a habitual way of striking up conversation, however I think I'm going to make a point to change that question. Instead of 'what do you do', a better question might be, 'how do you like to spend your time?' 

That one would get me talking.................