Love is more than just good song lyrics or flowery window dressing in life. It’s the big kahuna, the central purpose, the main goal we all should have. You’ve got to let love be the central focus in your life: your relationships, your family, and the work that you do.
Why, then, do so many people end up in a job they hate? Think about it for a moment. Where is love in this list of reasons to keep working your pathetic job?
- I need to keep busy.
- I need to pay the bills.
- I need to get out of the house.
- I need to stay connected with people.
- I need to climb the corporate ladder.
- I need to find self-worth.
- I need to work with others.
- I need to believe in something other than myself.
The list can go on and on. I offer you this:
Life is full of choices, so choose what you love first. The rest falls into place. [Tweet this]
Here’s what’s missing the list above, and it should be at the top: “I need to do what I love.”
Of course, the other bullets are good. Lots of important things in work life. We need to pay the bills, etc. Sometimes we have to readjust our desires and do what is not so desireable. That’s certainly needed.
But choosing your life’s journey with something you don’t love? That’s awkward, a genuine waste, a dying away at that which beacons you.
Put love at the top of life’s choices. Let it rule your life.
Loving what you do as a vocation is definitely a blessing. While there will always be those days where it’s a grind to get through, eventually you look back and you’re 10 – 15 – 20 years into a career that went by so fast.
Just as important, I think, is understanding what it is that you love about what you’re doing. This always helps to put the environment you’re in into the proper perspective. What I love is to watch people succeed, help them understand the importance of stewarding their time, money and talent, and to build the relationship along the way. There are so many different vocations where this calling can be met, from ministry to teaching to corporate training to interior design to virtually anything involving people.
I always told my students to find what it was they loved doing and they would never really hold a job. They would work, but it wouldn’t be tedious, “job-like” work. They would enjoy it AND they would work at it with a greater work ethic. I generally gave them this simple test to figure out whether or not they loved what they were doing:
1. Finish this sentence: I love going to work because…
If they could come up with at least 5 things before they got to their paycheck, then they were probably doing something they loved. It isn’t wrong to do something for the money (we do live in a society where barter is not a general method of payment), but it is rarely that the money will fulfill your calling.
This is a great insight, Rick. Your students were certainly blessed by you. Thanks for sharing this!
My experience with loving what I do: my passion lies in creation. That translates into many things: crafting debate cases, designing new strategies, writing fiction, designing a board game. I get a deep satisfaction when I can see something that didn’t exist until I came up with it. There are many aspects of what I do that I enjoy – but creation is what I love, and that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.
You look a LOT like that other bald guy in the picture! Hehe…hi Travis.
I like to point out that “creation” is an “image of God trait.” Something we’re created to do, to participate in. Very insightful…and I so totally relate.
A couple of thoughts. I am happiest when sacrificing myself and following God’s will for my life. If I have to do something that I don’t love in order to feed my family, I’d do it in a heartbeat. 100 yrs ago, my great grandfather would be laughing at our selfish generation’s need to be happy or do something we love. Love comes when we are able to do God’s will and this often means doing things we don’t always love.
Good points.