The other day I was having a conversation with a manager at work:
SHE: I have a passion for [activity that can actually be really lucrative], and I’m really good at it!
ME: Really?
SHE: Yes!
[She shows me photos of her work in said activity, and DAMN, she IS really good at it.]
ME: Wow, you could make really good money doing that instead of this!
SHE: Yeah, well, if I do it every day, I’d end up hating it.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot.
When exactly did we internalize the notion that what we love and what we do shouldn’t necessarily be the same thing? I know that sometimes “I want to” can suffer from too much “I have to”, but…it really does seem to me that we’ve gone way to far in normalizing a disconnect between what we do for a living and what we do while living.
Just something I’ve been kicking around a bit.
But then there’s the people who say, “I’ve never worked a day in my life because I love what I do.” Many, but not all, are in the arts. BTW, I’ve loved jobs that I’ve had, but I’ve NEVER thought it wasn’t work.