“Find what you love to do and get paid for doing it.”
Such a statement always produces the “real world” crowd who roll their eyes at it when they hear it.
Here are their 3 common arguments:
Argument #1: “If I do what I love to do, then I’ll become the quintessential starving artist.”
Obviously the biggest argument and the biggest deterrent right here. People automatically equate doing what you love with starving because they think you can’t make a lot of money doing it so they don’t even bother to start the journey.
Here’s the thing.
You don’t have to quit your day job from day one. Just start looking for what you love to do. Once you find it, do it. You don’t have to quit your job then either. Just keep on doing what you love.
IF YOU STICK WITH IT LONG ENOUGH AND YOU’RE CREATIVE ENOUGH – YOU’LL FIND WAYS TO MAKE MONEY FROM DOING IT.
And think about it. Should you choose to go the “safe route”, so are the vast majority of people so now you become a commodity and compete on price with other people for work.
When you do what you love – you become rare, scarce, and valuable as a result.
Now a lot of the whole starving artist picture is due to the fault of the focus on the individual with regard to the “do what YOU love to do” advice.
We forget money comes from other people, from serving them so there needs to be a paradigm shift from the “do what you love to do” STATEMENT to these kinds of “do what you love to do” QUESTIONS:
How can doing what I love to do add value to other people?
How can doing what I love to do create value for other people?
How can doing what I love to do improve the lives of other people?
How can doing what I love to do solve the problems of other people?
These are the questions we need to be asking.
“What do I love to do” is only half the equation.
And if you still have no idea how you’re going to make money, just do this:
Just do what you love to do in front of as many people as you can.
If you’re good enough, some people in that crowd will see the value in you and how your talents can be used which you will of course exchange for money.
Turns out when you do what you love to do and you’re good at it (that’s also a good distinction to draw with the do what you love thing – you have to be good at it) – you’re not the only one who loves to do it as well.
Some people like to do the same thing, but they suck at it so they need your help. That’s where you come in and that’s when money comes into your pocket
When you also do it in front of as many people as possible, you attract an audience and somebody who has a product/service targeted to that same audience can give you money so they can advertise in front of that audience too. Another revenue source for doing what you love to do.
But even after ALL this, if you for some obscure reason you can’t make money doing what you love to do, at least you know what you love to do and you’re doing it, which is far better than those who do the whole “work at a job I hate to buy stuff I don’t need to impress people I don’t like, go home, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat” routine.
Now onto the second argument.
Argument #2: “If everyone did what they love to do, there wouldn’t be enough of those jobs to go around and plus, who would do the dirty work?”
Well again, we run into the assumption trick.
Here’s the cold hard truth.
Everyone isn’t going to pursue what they love to do.
Why?
The reasons vary – fear, close mindedness or just maybe the circumstances in their lives don’t allow them to do it. Perhaps life dealt them a raw hand in life.
But let’s just assume for the sake of argument that even if everyone were to do it, guess what.
There’d STILL be more than enough room for ALL of them.
Why?
Because they can CREATE it.
They can create the jobs they want. They don’t have to apply for them. And you’ll find more often than not, people who do what they love are the ones who create their own jobs, who create their own work. Sure they can fit into a job too but when those run out, they will create. Most likely, they’ll create from the get go.
So who will do the jobs nobody else wants? Well, realize that just because you don’t like doing a certain job doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t like doing it too. If you hate cleaning, some people LOVE IT. They’re OCD about it. They might be fine being a janitor. Might even start their own company or create their own cleaning solutions.
But all that really doesn’t matter. It’s none of your concern or responsibility as to who is going to do the “dirty” jobs. It detracts from your focus which should be you doing what you love to do and how you can serve others doing it.
Argument #3: “Not everyone has a passion. Not everyone has something they love to do that they’re good at.”
I truly believe that’s a cop out.
The MOST ADVANCED living organism in the known universe with all the MILLIONS of different interests to pursue in this world.
You’re telling me that not everyone has a passion, something they’re interested in, something they love doing that they’re good at?
That we’re all the same?
Look at the life around you.
Is there only one type of flower, one type of fruit, one type of vegetable?
Do they all share the same characteristics?
Or is there something unique about each and every one of them that benefits us?
If it’s true for those non conscious living things, HOW MUCH MORE TRUE IS IT FOR US?
If you truly believe that there’s nothing for you in terms of something you’d love to do, then that will be your reality. You’re filtering out everything that will prove it wrong.
Believe there is something for you, something you can become passionate about, something you can find yourself loving to do, something that you’re good at, that will help other people and you’ll filter reality to give you the clues.
Keep on searching.
Don’t give up.
It’s worth the journey, however long it may be.
The thing is – we’re brought up NOT to think about ourselves. We’re brought up to deny our individuality, to conform to the masses, not to create, not to explore our uniqueness.
Add to that, most people get trapped in their routine of life.
THEY DON’T DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT.
Wake up dreading to go to work, traffic, push papers at the desk, office politics, come home, eat, TV, sleep, weekends – hang out same places with same people on the, chores, shopping, rinse and repeat.
IF YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE, YOU’LL ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS GOT.
If you don’t mix any new chemicals into your beaker of life, how can you expect any new chemical reactions to occur?
Expose yourself to totally new and different things and eventually something will click. You’ll see somebody doing their thing and something inside of you will go – “Yeah, that’s EXACLY what I want to do”.
And your new life will begin.
Or your mind will take all that information from those new experiences, crunch it, and spit out the solution of what you love to do and how you can make money from doing it while you’re taking a shower.
And your new life will begin.
The journey of finding and doing what you love to do and getting paid for it – even if it’s only side income, even if you still have to take a full time job you don’t like to survive so you can do what you love in your spare time – it’s still worth it.
Don’t be poisoned by the armchair critics who rely on the crutches of their assumptions to wail against it.
Dare to be different.
Dare to make the best use of yourself, of your life, and to serve other people.
Dare to buck the status quo.
Life’s too short to follow the script of becoming an interchangeable human being.
Like the late Steve Jobs said:
“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.”
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying, I’ve done something wonderful. That’s what matters.”
If you haven’t found what you love to do, now’s the time to do so and to help with that, here’s the very first article, How to Find What You Love to Do, that launched this site, my life, and the lives of those who have read it..
And here’s the book that was inspired by the article – the book that covers it ALL:
How to Finally Find What You Love to Do: The DEFINITIVE Guide to Finding and Successfully Pursuing Your Passion.
The article and the book that have changed hundreds of thousands of lives.
When a man died in ancient Greece, they only asked one question:
Did he have passion?
I hope the answer for you will be an overwhelming yes.
