On Doing What We Love

“You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it however.” [Richard Bach, Illusions]

A while back (think 1990’s) I read a wonderful book by Marsha Sinetar; Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow, There’s a rare few who start with a trust fund or a nice nest egg. They are gifted with the financial security to follow their passion, so the daily worries of how the bills will be paid aren’t really a concern. That doesn’t apply to most of us. So is that advice just helpful or apropos to the wealthy? I think not. 

It’s not always easy to do what you love for a career, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It can be challenging, frustrating, and sometimes scary to discover your word and put your heart into it–and let’s face it, some people have greater advantages than others. The only response to this is “So what?”

That being said, we all have the same time in our days, and we all have choices to make. And, time to throw in one of my favorite quotes here, “Just because what’s so is so, it’s also ‘So What?’” Whatever impediments exist only because we allow them to exist, or, because we define them as impediments.

A couple of thoughts on doing what you love; First – there is the clear implication that you know what it is you love. It’s so helpful when wanting to move towards a certain direction or goal, to have a direction or goal in mind. It reminds me a little of wanting to run to the grocery store at night to pick up a quick snack. Where I live, there are three really great groceries within two miles (and Costco, but no quick trips there…) So, when I pull the car out of the garage and head out, I’ve got to know which of the grocery stores I want to go to. While I know I want a snack (motivation), and am familiar with all the places I can go to address that (choice), I need to pick one and aim the car in that direction. That’s the only thing that will end up in result.

But for some people that’s hard to do. The motivation part isn’t hard, but they get stuck in the choices.

It’s like saying to oneself, “I’m not happy with the way things are right now, but I’m not sure what will fix it…” You gotta do some diagnostics.

A lot of the diagnostics starts with changing one’s thinking. AA/NA tradition has a wonderful saying, “Think what you’ve always thought and you’ll get what you always got…” so becoming aware of how we think about our lives is part of the process of figuring out what is going to really charge our batteries.

So many of us focus on what we don’t want, that we forget how powerfully we are attracted and drawn to what we do want. Our choices become more a process of aversion to what we don’t want, than an attraction to what we do want. We are drawn to the very things we fear (and those things are drawn to us), because that’s where we focus our thinking.

Back to the grocery store – I don’t want to go to New Seasons because it’s so expensive. OK Fine. Don’t go there…but more effective to identify where you do want go – and get it done.

It’s easy in the process to get swamped by all the things that are wrong, or to feel frozen by the perceived impediments in our path. Many of these are self-imposed limitations, or mind-sets and belief systems other people have tried to super-impose on us and we’ve bought into it.

It’s curious how when someone says we can’t do something, or that it’s unlikely we’ll succeed – the part of us that is insecure, or questions our abilities is so quick to agree. We don’t have to live like that – and when we do live like that, it doesn’t serve any useful good whatsoever.

So, time to count the little successes. It may also come to pass that if we take the risk to follow our bliss, happiness comes not only in the result – but in the journey to reach the result. And, we’re already on that journey. How cool is that?