Love Your Job!
Do you love your job? Do you even like it?
If you are like most people you tolerate your job. But should the bulk of your days be more than just something you put up with? I think one problem that people have is that they don’t think their work is meaningful.
Right now, I’m tutoring juvenile delinquents or kids who just came out of jail. These are usually very troubled kids and this is very meaningful. However, I get frustrated sometimes because I’m teaching at a much lower level than I did when I was teaching in college. I will start teaching again in college soon, but even though this job does more for society, I like teaching kids in college better.
I love teaching in a college setting because you can do really great debates and discussions. I live for that stuff. I did try to teach in middle school and high school. That was not for me because it required a lot of classroom management. I don’t really enjoy disciplining kids.
In college kids act respectful, whether they mean it or not. And they are adults, sort of. I’m not sure I have the patience for kids.
What do you really want to do when you grow up? Are you doing that very thing? Do you think you can make money doing what you love?
I haven’t made a dime writing yet, however, I’m going to keep doing it until it pays off. Writing and teaching are my passions, and although they are not necessarily high paying jobs, they can pay off if done right.
I was going to become a lawyer at first in college. I’m really glad I didn’t go that way, what I really wanted to do was be a lawyer on T.V. and argue cases in a dramatic way. That is not what real lawyers do, most of it is paperwork. Boring paperwork.
I mean if being an attorney is something you enjoy doing, then more power to you. But for me doing what I love is more important than the security of a good paycheck. I still want money, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t want to do things I hate for it.
I don’t always love writing or teaching. There are parts of it that are a real struggle. However, generally, those two things spark a passion inside me. A job done without passion is not really worth it to me. Either is a life lived without passion.
But it’s not always that easy. There are bills to pay, mouths to feed. I understand why people take jobs they dislike in order to make ends meet. We don’t all have the luxury of doing what we want. But there are ways to construct a way of life around doing what you love, you just have to really want it.
I just read an article in The New York Times about how all these very rich people who are dissatisfied with their jobs but they stay at them because they are now accustomed to a certain upscale lifestyle. However, they are very unhappy.
As I’ve said before, most people lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau said that. I don’t want to be one of those people and I bet you don’t either. So is there a way to do what you love and still get paid? You have to take risks and do a lot of work that does not get paid. Like the writing I’m doing, I’m not getting paid but hope one day my books will get published.
If you want to start a business on the side doing something you love, you may not make a lot of money at first. But it’s a start. It’s important that you at least try to be happy in what you do. We spend at least eight hours a day doing our jobs, that is a huge chunk of our lives. It is unfair for us to be stuck in work that we do not enjoy for all that time.
But first, you have to have a dream if you really want to make something you love into your work. You have to see yourself doing this and succeeding. Picture it. Feel it. And then just do it. I know it’s not that easy, but it can be if you just take the steps towards it.
Try it.
nina
