You Can Actually “Work” Because You Want To
Growing up, the importance of working was made evident early on. My parents are both immigrants and when they came to America they only had one goal: to work and to make money. They didn’t care so much how they would make the money as long as they did it honestly and made enough to support themselves and the family they planned on having.
I don’t believe my parents loved what they did, but they did it because they knew it was their best shot at making it. Circumstances don’t always allow for us to follow all of our dreams. In America, we are more privileged than we know — especially when looking back at the state of the world 30 years ago.
Nowadays we believe that each of us should find the thing that we are most passionate about and follow that dream. Nevertheless, we are often told by our parents to avoid following our dreams of becoming a painter or rock-star or — what would today’s equivalent be? — a DJ.
This is the time in our lives when we decide to rebel. Yet, somewhere down the line we lose sight of our dreams and — probably after life gives us a swift kick in the ass — we revert to getting a job that is safe and reliable.
A safe and reliable job is…well…safe and reliable. There really isn’t much more to it. The problem with safe and reliable is that most of us will find it boring. Safe and reliable often means that it isn’t very challenging and that room for growth is minimal. These sorts of jobs may make you a good amount of money, but it will feel like work. You may be thinking to yourself: isn’t work supposed to feel like work?
Well, that depends on you and what kind of work you are doing. I truly believe that each and every one of us has a job out there that fits us just perfectly. It fits us so well that when we ‘work’ we don’t feel like we are actually working. It’s not to say that we don’t put in the hours, but rather that we do not experience those hours the same way we experience others.
Working eight hours at a job you loathe will often feel like twelve. Working eight hours on something that you love will often at times feel like four.
But it’s not just about how long the hours feel — in fact, it is more about the way you feel about the job in its entirety. It’s all about passion. Passion seems to be that magical ingredient that can turn just about anything into a thing of wonder. You can have endless, unsuccessful relationships, but as soon as you find one filled with passion, you are more likely to keep it alive.
Relationships start when passion forms and marriages end when passion disappears. Passion itself is not only an elevated feeling; it’s a force. It is the force that drives lovers to their limits. It is the same force that motivates heroes to do battle and for painters to brush each stroke.
Passion is what makes the impossible possible — yet, many of us would like to believe that we can be content without it. You can’t. You will never be happy if you do not have passion of some sort alive in your life.
Passion is the best reason to do whatever it is that you are doing. Passion makes doing easier. Passion gives meaning to thing that do not have it innately. Passion is our compass and it will direct us to what we are either meant to do or should do. Passion is the fuel that pushes the champion that last inch closer to the finish line ahead of the competition. So why is it that most of us do not follow our passions?
It may very well be that we have not found what arouses passion within us. Or…we may just not be looking at all. A lot of people would rather stay in their comfort zones than risking comfort entirely in order to find what they are passionate about. But if you do not find that spark which lights the fire within you, then you will lack purpose behind all that you do. Reason can only get you so far — it’s passion that continues to push us when reason brings doubt.
Having passion allows us to work harder for longer. It allows us to focus more intensely and creates a hunger within us for the subject that we are passionate about. Imagine how incredible everything would be were it all to be done by someone passionate behind it.
Imagine the innovations and progress. It’s not intellect or genius that was behind most of the greatest innovations in the history of human kind, but the passion that drove each individual to push him or herself further than the average. Most of us will conclude that in order to create anything worth creating, one must spend numerous hours studying, learning and training.
One may be able to do all of this hard work without passion, but I believe that the passionless usually drop out of the race, conceding that the work they had been poring over simply wasn’t meant for them. Then you have those select few that seem to be able to concentrate for months on end, to be able to do more than others and do so with a smile on their faces.
Most will call it genius. The truth is that these individuals probably aren’t any smarter than you or I — they are simply driven by an unstoppable force that brings them to the brink of insanity: passion.
Paul Hudson | Elite.
@MrPaulHudson
