** Special May announcement, March saw the publication of the very first book in a six novella dystopian series I’ve been working on since early 2015. “Dark World : The Surface Girl” only $0.99 on kindle, or FREE if you’re a part of Kindle Unlimited! Check it out!
For the sake of blogging and self-exploration and contemplation, I answer a question a day off of this list.
Today’s question : Is it more important to do what you love or to love what you are doing?
This question confuses me a bit. Aren’t they same thing, unless it’s asking you if it’s more important to make the effort to do something you know you love, or to TRY and love what you already doing?
Here’s the thing,though; passion cannot be forced. Feeling connected to, inspired by, or otherwise truly loving something is not the type of feeling you can wake up with and say, “Well, I can’t change this so I might as well love it” or “Man I hate math but this accounting job pays well, I GUESS I’LL LOVE MATH!” It may be difficult and scary to steer your course away from something you feel you have to do and take a chance on something you love to do, but the quote “If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life” is actually true in my experience.
I don’t love EVERY aspect of my job. Sometimes I feel like I can’t help enough and I get compassion fatigue. Sometimes I see and hear horrific stories of neglect and abuse and I can’t keep my shit together; today I sat in my desk chair and cried during a pretty intense crisis while my co-workers got into beast mode and got sh*t done. I felt useless today, but I’m also the person other people go to when they are upset, or when they need someone to listen and not judge or when they need to vent or when they need someone who will truly see all angles of a situation. Even on a bad day or a difficult day I still love what I do and when I wake up in the morning I don’t think to myself, “Ugh, I have an eight-hour workday ahead of me..” I’m actually happy to go in and do my part and I’d want to be a part of the cause even if I wasn’t getting a paycheck.
It’s definitely important to do what you love. Any sacrifices you have to make in order to do what you love don’t feel like sacrifices because you’re living your passion, you’re in your element, you’re not working, you’re Living. Trying to force yourself to “love” something that is not your passion is just setting yourself up for feelings of failure and long-term dissatisfaction.
Kell Frillman - Author 