Stop Doing Work That You Hate

A few months ago I went on a blind date.

My friends all tell me that I work too much, so they set me up. They said that I need to “live a little.” Apparently hanging out at a café drinking espresso on a Saturday night, while I catch up on some work, does not qualify as fun. At least that’s what I’ve been told.

Needless to say, I succumbed to the peer pressure and went out to dinner instead of going to my coffee shop of choice.

As I sat down to dinner with my date, the usual first date conversation commenced. You know, the “Where are you from?”, “What do you do?” kind of stuff.

It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to realize that this date, this courtship, potential relationship, or what have you, would not work out.

I asked, “What do you do?”

“I am an x-ray technician,” she said.

“How do you like that?” I asked. “Do you enjoy it?”

“I LOVE IT!” She said.

Admittedly I was a little taken back by that response. I’ve never met anyone so excited about x-rays in my life. She reassured me that she did in fact love her work though. She likes helping people and talking to them and this job pays the bills.

Now, I wasn’t trying to rain on her parade, but I asked “are you sure you love it?” Love it like you’d do it for free, you’d do it even if you weren’t getting paid?

“Well no,” she said.

Well okay, I thought, nowhere getting somewhere. I followed up with, “What would you do if you could do anything?”

She looked at me and sat in silence for a minute before replying, “I guess sales.”

Like I said, it’s not going to work out.

If You Don’t Love It, Don’t Do It

There’s nothing wrong with sales, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with having a job that pays that bills, but don’t you want more than that?

Think about it…

If you could have any job, what would you do?

Let’s just assume that you’re not a millionaire going in. You’re not going to sell all of your worldly possessions and live off of the land either. You have to work to provide for yourself. That means some kind of stable income, paying the bills, etc. It can be as extravagant or as simple as you’d like. But, you have to choose.

What would you do if you could do anything?

You should know. You should be trying to figure it out. And, at some point, you should try and actually do it. Get paid to do what you love.

Start Doing What You Love Right Now

Notice, I didn’t say you should quit your job. I said; you should start doing what you love to do. Do it more often. Think about how you could monetize that love.

Write down what you are most passionate about, what you do in your spare time, the work you already do for free. Now, write down the jobs that utilize that skill or the various ways you could get paid to do that work. Don’t worry about how. Stop worrying about credentials.

Just do this:

1. Read everything you can get your hands on about this topic
2. Watch documentaries, go to talks, network with people who have similar interests as you
3. Look at others who do what you want to do and figure out how you can do what they do better, or differently. Reach out to them and ask them how they did it.
4. Start doing it. Start doing that thing you love, even if you’re doing it for free. If you’re any good, if you’re working hard enough, you’ll be able to monetize what you’re doing.

There Is No Secret

I know; you have a job, a family, and kids. You don’t have time or you don’t know how to follow through the list of ideas/jobs that you’ve created. You can’t afford it, don’t have money saved, and don’t know how to get venture capital. You don’t have the it factor for success.

Guess what, there is no secret for success. The secret is that if you don’t work at doing what you love, you’ll always do things that you hate.

You do have the time; you just have to spend it better. Go to work, go to your real job and then work from 7 pm until 2 am. Go to sleep and do it again.

You don’t have to have all of the answers when you start out; you just have to figure out the next step. You really don’t even have to do that; you just have to find someone else who can show you that next step. Maybe that’s a mentor, a friend, a potential business partner; who knows?

It’s simple really, if you never try to figure out what you love or what you’re passionate about, you’ll never find fulfillment. You’ll try to fill that void with material things and money, but it won’t work.

Personally, I am more afraid of that feeling than I am of failing at trying to live off of my passion. No matter what happens, at least I can say that I tried.

Can you say the same?