What If You Loved Your Work?

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Love Your Work
- Ch: 6.1 of How To Get Your Sh!t Together -

“Don’t dream your life but live your dream”
 – Mark Twain

Do you have a dream? A life purpose? A calling? Something that you have wanted your whole life?

It is fitting to start with a clarification of what a dream actually is, because in order to follow your dreams, you first have to have a dream. Obvious I know, yet when pressed, many people struggle to name what they want beyond some kind of vague variation of ‘more’. They want more time, more money, more success, more status, more possessions, more knowledge, more security, more certainty, more lovers, more friends, and more experiences. They want what they already have, but just a bit more of it. Enough to satisfy the feelings of failure, inadequacy and unfulfilled potential that creeps up and haunts them whenever they fall stagnant for too long.

If they are following their dreams, wanting more of what they have makes sense, however when you talk to most people, it is all too easy to see that they are simply not that satisfied with their lives. Their youthful passion is gone, replaced by the mundanity and responsibilities of adult life. They have settled for their lot in life and given up on their true calling.

A dream is something beyond just ‘more of the same’. It is something that is at the core of your being, something that is tugging you in a certain direction, pushing and guiding you. You know when you are on the path of following your dreams, because you will feel more whole, a deep sense of satisfaction or ‘rightness’ about what you are doing.

You will know it if you are not following your dreams, because you will feel dissatisfied. You may be comfortable, living well and affording all the nice things, but all of that ‘success’ will still feel hollow.

Stress and obligation causes people to forget their dreams. Dreams are inherently not practical, and following them could cause instability. It is exceedingly difficult to even imagine a different life, let alone to take the steps necessary to forge out a new one. Some people are too afraid to even consider the possibility that they have dreams that deviate from the norm of their established life, because to do so would cause them to have to question their current existence. So instead of attempting something novel, instead of pursuing their passions, they settle and just accept their lot, replacing their dreams with the desire of something slightly more.

It takes firm conviction and courage to follow your dreams.

This isn’t to say that the scope or nature of your dreams needs to be in line with mine, or those of someone else. Your dreams are yours alone, and whatever they are, they are worth following. Attempting to do so gives life a meaning and purpose that is far beyond mere survival.

Loving Your Work

The concept of loving your work encapsulates the concept of following your dreams. Money isn’t everything of course, but for most of us it is a necessity.

We need to be able to afford a place to sleep, and food to eat. Therefore it would be ideal if we loved our work, it would be even more ideal if our work was our passion, and going to work each day constituted an act of following your dreams.

Imagine waking up on a Monday morning excited to be going to work? Or lamenting the fact that it is Friday and you won’t be working for the next few days? If you loved your work, this would be a reality.

This isn’t to say that your dream has to be financial of course, but considering how much time we all spend working, it would be ideal if our work was somewhat in line with our passion as opposed to the drudgery that many people complain of.

When asked what surprised him about humanity the most, the Dalai Lama replied: “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.”

I was once stuck in this cycle of hating my work-life. Ever since I started working, I was never quite satisfied with what I was doing. It wasn’t all bad of course, I made friends, I learnt a lot, and had some good experiences, but I was never really excited about going to work.

I was keenly aware that I was trading my time for money.

Initially I didn’t question this trade off, I turned up to whatever I was employed to do, stayed there for my allotted time, and in exchange I was given what I was owed. Everyone I knew was doing it, and it just seemed like what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t really connected to what I was doing on a deep level, I wasn’t inspired by it, and it wasn’t my ‘calling’. Work simply paid the bills. I continued like this for quite a few years, dissatisfied with life in general, but not quite sure why I felt that way, or what to do about it.

As time went on, work began to feel like a necessary evil, a term of service, something to sacrifice my time and effort towards in exchange for my very existence. Each workday left me exhausted, both physically and mentally. I would come home from a long day and feel empty, tired and irritable. My diet suffered, I wasn’t exercising, and my mental health steadily declined. I was living for the weekend and holidays, cramming all of my ‘life’ into those allotted respites.

Although I had a lot of money at my disposal, I didn’t have the time or energy to even enjoy it. The long-term prospects for my life were no better. Projecting myself forward I realised that unless I made some drastic changes, I would lose my entire life to this trap. I would get promoted and earn more money, I would be able to afford a slightly better car, a slightly better house, and slightly better stuff, but I would still be doing the same thing. Trading my time for money, doing something I didn’t really enjoy for the rest of my life. This seemed inherently pointless.

I needed guidance, I needed change. So I decided to talk widely, read into, and meditate on my situation. My issue was far from unique to me. There would be countless others who are facing what I am facing, and many who have overcome it. I would learn from their wisdom.

My search yielded the following realisations:

1: Time is the only resource that I can never get back.
- No matter how much I earnt per hour, I could never trade that money back in exchange for another hour of life. Time is literally priceless. I could invest, or live off savings and ‘buy’ time in which I wouldn’t have to work, but that is not the same as getting more time. Once it is gone it is gone.


2: What I ‘need’ and what I ‘want’ are not the same.
- What I need to survive: food, water, shelter, safety, security. These are significantly cheaper than the things I want. If I re-evaluate what I actually want, I wouldn’t have to earn as much as I do now to survive. Less work would mean more time.

3: Retirement is a long way away.
- Planning for retirement is a smart thing to do. Eventually I will be too old to work, and will need to be able to support my continued existence. However the thought of sacrificing my youth and entire adulthood doing something that I am not happy with, just to be comfortable when I am close to dying seems abhorrent.

4: Life is unpredictable, I could die at any time.
- I don’t know when the end will come. I hope and assume that it will be in the distant future, but realistically my life may end unpredictably. I would hate to die, without really ever living.

5: Quitting and changing careers is not failure.
- It would be more of a failure to stick to a line of work that I disliked, than to re-evaluate what I am doing and make some changes.

Putting all of these realisations together I discovered that the best course of action would be to make some significant changes to my work-life. I promptly stopped working full-time, and began working on a causal basis. This change caused my income levels to drop by more than half, but I also simultaneously re-evaluated what I want and need. Although I didn’t have as much physical possessions or financial freedoms, I was actually happier with the exchange. I had significantly more time to pursue my passions and take the actions needed to start loving my work.

This is of course an ongoing process, and I am constantly re-evaluating what I am doing and why. However, where at all possible, I will ‘Guard My Mental State At All Costs’ (chapter 2.1), meaning that regardless of how much money any one venture is giving me, if I am not enjoying it I will consider changing what I am doing. This isn’t to say that I don’t have bad days, given my issues with mental afflictions bad days are bound to happen. So to be clear, one bad day is not enough to warrant a change, but successive bad days are.

“They deem me mad because I wouldn’t sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.”  – Kahil Gibran

Getting Paid To Do What You Love

I love the sentiment of Kahil’s above quote, but the practical reality of life is one in which we need to work in some capacity to survive. Therefore the best solution is to get paid to do something that you love.

For some people, even contemplating the concept of work being enjoyable is akin to blasphemy. It seems wrong to want to be paid to do something you enjoy. It’s almost like it is necessary to suffer through work to be deserving of payment, or that because many other people don’t like their work situation, you don’t have the right to like it either. This is simply not the case.

Our society needs a variety of jobs in order for it to function, and a variety of people to fill those jobs. Some jobs are vital for the survival of the society, and other jobs give the society a reason to survive. Regardless, it is clear that you would be suited to and enjoy some of those jobs far more than other jobs.

Why not attempt to fill the job that is both needed and that you would most enjoy performing? Someone will end up doing that job anyway, so why not you?

The Japanese have a concept called ‘Ikigai’ that expresses this well. It means ‘a reason for being’. Attempting to live a life that fits the concepts of Ikigai, involves finding work that fits the following four criteria; your work should be:

- Something you love
- Something you are good at
- Something the world needs
- Something you can be paid for

It is clear that finding a line of work that fits those four criteria would be ideal. Doing something that you love and that you are good at would bring you personal satisfaction, and completing the work would be inherently enjoyable. If the world needs your work, then performing it has an inherent meaning that goes far beyond your own enjoyment and into the lives of everyone else. Of course, unless you can be paid for it, the activity can only exist as a hobby and nothing more. What fits those four criteria will be different for everyone, you will have talents and preferences that I don’t have, and you may consider that the world needs things that I don’t. But this search isn’t one of objective reality, it is of personal preference. If you can find a line of work that fits those four criteria, you will have a much more pleasant existence. Getting up to work won’t be a chore, and you will know that what you are doing actually matters.

“If you love your work, if you enjoy it, you are already a success.” – Jack Canefeild

Making Changes

The question now becomes one of practical realities, if you don’t like what you are doing, how can you go about the process of making change? Before you quit your current line of work, you need to first ensure that you are still able to support your family and complete any responsibilities that you may have. Don’t just quit and leave yourself struggling. With no way of supporting yourself, you will likely end up having to take whatever work you manage to get. This new work will likely be of a variety that you enjoy far less than your current field.

You first need to consider what it is that you would actually like to be doing. What line of work could you do, that you would enjoy, that the world needs and that you could get paid for? Think widely.

Any job that exists is performed by people; you could theoretically perform that job as well.

You may have the qualifications and skills necessary already, or you may need to upskill by returning to some form of schooling. If this is the case, take the time to work out what you would need to do in order to fulfil the technical requirements for that position.

Once you know what you want to do, and what you will need to do prior, start making changes. Go slowly, and don’t overburden yourself. This will require you to balance your current life with what you are changing into. If you find that you don’t have the time to fit in study, you may need to move to part time employment in the interim. This will of course result in a drop of income and subsequently a sacrifice of lifestyle. Knowing that this is coming means that it can be planned for, take another look at ‘Get Your Finances In Order’ (chapter 4.3) for advice on how to best manage a lower income.

Make sure that you communicate why you are making these changes to everyone in your life who will be impacted by the change. Tell them that the lifestyle sacrifices won’t last forever, but that at the other end of this transition, you will be significantly happier and more fulfilled with your life.

Even if you are happy in your current line of work, there are still steps that you can do to help you love your work even more. It basically comes down to knowing what you want and proactively asking for it. If you know that you would enjoy a particular assignment and would be well suited in that role, ask for it. If you have been assigned a role that is causing you stress and you know that others would love to do that work, suggest a swap to your boss. If you would prefer to work part-time, ask for it.

If you want something, ask for it.

Your boss wants their people working in the areas that they are most suited to as this ensures that they are as productive and satisfied as possible. All good things for the company. But unless you speak up, they may not know that you feel a particular way.

Following Your Dreams Outside Of Work

Of course, not all dreams can or should be monetised. I know many people whose ultimate dream was to become a parent and to raise their children in a safe and loving manner. To them, what they do for work is irrelevant because they are so completely devoted to their children. Some are obsessed with travel, and will work considerable hours, doing anything they can in order to build up a bank of money quick enough to once again travel. Other people have hobbies that they are obsessed with, they work just enough to cover their expenses and support their hobby and that’s about it. Still others will have a completely creative project that they will gladly spend years of their spare time working on. They don’t want to turn that creativity into work because they use it as an outlet, and would feel like making money from it would ruin the artistic nature of their project. These people all want a stable and secure workplace in which they can turn up, do the work, get paid and go home to follow their dreams.

If you have a dream that lies outside the realm of work, that is great, pursue it! But if you find that your work-life is impeding that pursuit, take some actions to make some changes, even if that means simply transferring to another division, or to a different corporation in the same line of work.

Do what you need to do to follow your dreams, because life will feel increasingly pointless if you don’t.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q) You mentioned that you want to get paid to do something that you would do for free. Isn’t that greedy? It seems selfish or dirty that you desire to be paid for doing something that you enjoy.

A) It can seem that way, but why should it?

If you could choose between two jobs, you would choose the one that you enjoyed doing more right? I am just extrapolating that concept to all jobs, and attempting to find work doing something that I really love.

This won’t be possible for everyone of course, but for those who do find it possible, should take the opportunity. Regardless, while getting the ‘dream job’ may be out of reach for some people, everyone can make some changes to improve their work-life for the better.

It is not selfish to enjoy performing a necessary task. The enjoyment is a just bonus.

Q) I have no idea what dreams I want to follow. I hate work. I have a few interests, but they are hollow, and I don’t really want to pursue them. It all seems pointless.

A) It sounds like you are suffering from the symptoms of depression or similar mental afflictions. If I were in your situation I would reread Parts 1 and 2 of this book, as well as use the services of a professional therapist to help guide you towards recovery.

If you are in a bad mental state, the thought of anything other than a comfortable bed can be overwhelming. If your focus is on surviving, then contemplating the changes necessary to thrive will seem overwhelming or pointless.

Take action to work on your mental state, and once you are in a better place, then begin to work on following your dreams.

Resources
The War Of Art, Steven Pressfield
The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert

Summary
Find work that you enjoy, that you are good at, that the world needs and that you can get paid for. Take the necessary actions follow your dreams.