Do What You Love?

Of all the quotes/sayings/advice that have been preached to me over the years, especially during college, it was this:

Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

It was ingrained into me that my college major should be something I completely enjoy, without (as much) worry for future job prospects. The idea behind it was that if you love what you’re studying, then by that logic, you can continue down the same field into the professional world and enjoy your work there, too.

Well, I’m now a year out of college (which I admit is not a very long time, but it’s gotten me thinking), and I’m really not that convinced on this whole “do what you love, love what you do” business.

“Work” as the name so kindly implies, requires working after all. (I know, tell me your mind isn’t blown right now.) But as obvious as this may sound, it’s still the most fundamental mistake we’ve made in understanding the role Work plays in our lives. By the way, I’m capitalizing Work to indicate its use as a noun, as in ‘job’ or ‘employment’ rather than its use as a verb (#grammar).

Now let me first clarify that the “we” I refer to includes people primarily of my generation – the Millennial's/Gen Y’s, Gen Z’s, and probably most of you reading this post. I make this distinction because of an important realization I’ll get to further on.

Now my theory is that we’re bombarded by messages of doing what you love for a few reasons:

1. We live in a social-media-controlled world.

Yep, you best believe that social media topped the list. How could I talk about persisting issues of our society without mentioning the good ol’ sosh meeds? And yeah, no-one's calling it that, don’t worry.

2. We're flooded by content pretty much every single minute of our lives.

This draws back to point #1 i.e. social media. While that’s one of the biggest culprits, simple things like driving past billboards and watching ads on TV/YouTube also subconsciously feed us content.

3. Because of the nature of this content, we’re prone to only see the “good stuff.”

What do I mean by this? Well, all we really see is the happy, healthy human living their perfect little lives. We all know this isn’t really true, and yet we’ve all been or are victims to the self-deprecating nature of social media/flood of content in our lives.

Here is where I find the generational gap that I mentioned earlier in regards to the perception of Work. Have you noticed how previous generations, i.e. our parents and grandparents, don’t seem to complain as much about working? Do they just love their jobs so much? Have they found their calling? And if so, why can’t we?

No, of course this isn’t the case (the majority of the time). Sure, there are definitely those who really truly love their job, but for most people, Work is viewed as a means to an end. Simply put, primarily as a method of making money so that they can support themselves and their families.

On the other hand, that leaves the rest of us. The ones who are glued to their phones and computers and consuming content all the time. We see YouTubers and content creators making tons of money by “doing what they love.” We see our friends on Instagram and Facebook starting their own companies, or traveling the world, and we begin to think:

What’s wrong with me? Am I doing it all wrong? Should I be pursuing my passions? What are my passions?

Now take a deep breath and remember, there’s nothing wrong with you. And now please read that again.

Because we grew up in a world of social media and instant content, we keep seeing the highs of everyone’s lives, and only the highs. You know the saying,

Don’t compare your behind-the-scenes to someone else’s highlight reel.

Bringing this back to the idea of Work as doing what you love, I think this is where my realization hits hard. Our parents didn’t grow up in a world where they saw average people turn their hobbies into careers, nor did they have platforms such as YouTube to make it happen. So, they trudged along and worked in a secure (though sometimes boring) job that brought them a steady income and instead, they spent the rest of their waking hours devoted to their families, hobbies, passions, joys, etc.

So, after all of this, what I’m trying to say is don’t worry so much if you feel like you’re not doing what you love to do as your career. (Please do what you love to do outside of it, though. That’s still really important for your mental health.) Most people I’ve spoken to tell me that Work is pretty tedious, routine, and sometimes boring. Very very few people actually have exciting thrilling jobs that they jump out of bed for every morning. But they’re the ones you’re seeing every day.

I want to make a big disclaimer though. I hope this post doesn’t make you complacent. I’m not telling you that Work is never going to be exciting and you have no power to change that. Still hustle and work hard, and if you do want your hobbies to become your career, then keep working at that, too.

Rather, the take away is to not beat yourself up about the fact that you think you’re doing something wrong or falling behind in life. There’s no such thing. If Work doesn’t excite you every morning, but you’re still going every day, then ask yourself, Why?

Usually it’s for the money, and that’s still a perfectly good reason. (If even the money isn’t worth it, then sure, maybe you should quit.) But then the next question to ask yourself is, What does that money bring me? Security, safety, food. Maybe toys for your kids, a new computer for yourself, a bigger and better house. Whatever it is, the money you make is bringing value and happiness to your life in other forms, and that’s equally, if not more, important.