Do what you love. Love. What is love? Especially when it come to things. I am always fascinated and disgusted at the same time by these kind of statements – ‘Be yourself’, ‘Do your thing’, ‘Do what you love’. It is common for humans to be selfish and ‘thinking about oneself’ is in our core of being human. So saying this, humans emphasise the necessity of being human again in times of a full-time easy-to-reach state and unstable work-life-balance. People need to relax sometimes and do something else. Some people are happy and lucky enough to work in an area they like and that leads to one of the origins of this statement: ‘Do what you love’. Find your source of happiness and live it. I have a pleasure to work as a freelance designer and artist and I love what I do. And writing this, I, of course, want also to point out that there are days when I really love what I do and there are days when I really hate what I do. But that is a different story.
Everything humans do usually, they do it with a purpose – intrinsic or extrinsic. Satisfaction, money, fame and glory, happiness, security or something else. Starting with basic ‘mammal’ needs we move to personal goals and towards finding our purpose. Being able to find that one ‘thing’ that will push us to unbelievable heights sometimes takes a life long to find. As I mentioned in last weeks post: ‘Having too many interests and about curiosity’, trying out new things can bring you near to finding your purpose or at least something you would love to do. And of course it not just about work – it is about everything a human is capable of doing: hobby, traveling, finding new adventures or just as simple as delicious eating. If you are a human being that is simply living your life without any ambitions and you are happy. Then you are already doing what you love. If you are a human being that struggles and trying to grab any opportunity to change your life. Then you are on the way to figure it out. Sometimes one can pause the search for finding what one loves and just do what makes you the most of what is necessary for your situation. Life is a dynamic current. And looking for your purpose while doing something relevant for you may give you your purpose and the feeling of finding what you love.
No matter what you do, no matter what you love and no matter if you found your purpose or not – just follow your inner feeling and trust yourself.
Reading recommendations and other:
Some interesting views on this topic:
- Don’t do what you love for a career—do what makes you money by Catherine Baab-Muguira, 2016 more on qz.com
- Do What You Love? Or, Love What You Do? by David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom, 2015, more on forbes.com
- A Brutal Truth About Following Your Passion and Doing What You Love That Few People Admit by Jeff Haden, 2017, more on inc.com
- By Doing What You Love, Success Will Follow by Luminita D. Saviuc, 2018, more on purposefairy.com
- Why some of us don’t have one true calling by Emilie Wapnick, 2015, more on ted.com
- On being a “scanner” personality by Sebastian Martin, 2018, more on medium.com
Quote of the week:
“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle…
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
― Steve Jobs
