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Do what you love! This sounds like solid career advice. Who in their right mind would not want to trade the 8-5 grind for endless hours of thrilling passion? It would be much more satisfying and enjoyable to follow your heart, do what you love, such as opening a tiki shop on the beach to sell seashell jewelry or teaching skiing lessons on a powdery mountain in the Rockies.
You love what you do, so why not make it a daily habit and get paid for it?
There is so much career advice out there. You have to decide what bits you want to invest in. Be careful. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wise to utter it as wisdom.
The advice to do what you love is perhaps the most savage piece of career advice. Here are the reasons:
Do What You Love
Turn your passion into a job.
Your passion becomes your job when you make it your day job. All the stress that comes with a job can have an impact on what you love. Let’s say that you are passionate about pottery. You find that throwing bowls is your passion, and you get a job that allows you to do it every day. After a few months, everything is perfect. Then you are hit by a strike at all the clay producers, which leaves you without any raw materials indefinitely. Production is stopped. Orders get backlogged. Overdue bills pile up. Talk of a layoff is common. You feel stressed. You feel stressed out about work. You toss in and out of bed until you finally give up and go to the garage in search of some pottery therapy. One glance at the pottery wheel will reveal that romance has ended. All that you once loved about pottery is now lost in the daily stresses of business. Do you know the expression, “Never mix business and pleasure?” This is just one reason.
Passion is not enough to pay the bills.
It shouldn’t be about what I like to do. Career choices should focus on “what kinda life do you want?” It’s smart to think about money. Money pays the bills. Money allows you to make your own decisions and can give you the freedom to live the lifestyle you desire. Instead of choosing a career that is based on what you love doing, find one that pays enough to allow you to live the life you want. You can then pursue your passions with no financial stress.
It is a selfish decision to choose a passion as a career without regard for other factors like income. Imagine that you are an attorney and quit a job to teach kindergarten. Your income suddenly drops to one-sixth of what it was before. While your family may be able to manage the daily expenses, there are no plans for yearly vacations, college funds, or early retirement to travel together. You may be happier, but at what cost to your future and family?
Choose work that is in line with your strengths and skills.
Find out what you are good at and then find a job that will pay you well. CareerFitter is one of the most useful career tools. Psychologists design this online assessment to help you identify the perfect job and work personality. This includes your strengths, weaknesses and likes, as well as your tendencies, all related to how you work. This assessment is 60 multiple-choice questions with no right answer. It will provide a detailed report that details your strengths and which job categories best match them. You can also use this information to help you build a career around what you already know. It doesn’t matter if you are good at it, really great at it, companies will fight for you. You’ll have financial success and job security. You can bet that you will enjoy your job if you are well-respected for the work you do. Who knows? You may even develop a passion for it.)
Other things are more important.
This isn’t again about money. It’s about the seasons of our lives. Those circumstances affect us and determine our priorities. Let’s take, for example, a mom who is just starting. It could be gratifying to pursue your passion and start an organic baby food business. As a startup, how will you afford healthcare? Can you manage the demands of a new baby as well as a new business? Because life happens, personal fulfillment is not something you should be looking for in a job. Your most pressing needs could be related to benefits and healthcare, as well as your commute time or flexibility.
It’s just a trap.
Most people don’t have a single passion. This is why “do what your heart desires” career advice doesn’t work. What do people do? They live their lives trying to find that “do what they love” passion. Each job fails. They feel like failures, and they don’t know why they want to become a veterinarian. These stories are rare. It’s easy to envy their certainty and their certainness when you hear them. If that is not who we are, then let it go. Be happy being you. Don’t spend your life searching for a passion. Instead, find something that makes you happy and helps you live a balanced, healthy life. Your life shouldn’t be about work; it should be your main focus. Your strengths should be recognized and a career built around them. Then, get busy with everything that’s not related to work.
An unquestionably important figure in world history, Steve Jobs said this: “The only way you can do great work is to love the things you do.” Keep looking if you still haven’t found your passion. Do not settle.” Poppycock. Although Jobs was a visionary, his career advice was not very helpful.
To do great work, you must be proficient at your job. This is a great example of someone who hates cooking, gardening, sewing, video gaming, writing, swimming, crafting, sewing, video games and writing. This means that just because you love something doesn’t necessarily mean you will ever excel at it. Don’t let yourself be enticed by endless searching. You can “settle” in a job that allows you to use your strengths and earns you well. It will also give you the financial stability and freedom you need to live a fulfilled life.
Don’t misunderstand. No one denies passion. Passion is a positive thing in life. Passion isn’t the only thing that makes a rewarding career worthwhile. If you can’t give up on the idea of doing meaningful work, you might consider a career that is fulfilling. Find what you are good at and use that knowledge to solve a problem. Your work should be a positive contribution to the world. A job that is valuable and fulfilling will fill the same void that doing work you love. It will also provide you with a competitive wage and a secure career field. Do something meaningful for others instead of trying to satisfy yourself. This, ironically, may prove to be very satisfying.
There are tons of career advice available. They’re all concise and easy to understand. This advice should not be taken at face value. There is too much at stake. Instead, look deeper to discover if these little pieces of wisdom are the right solution for you. Are you unsure where to begin? Don’t worry! We have other blog posts to help you, such as What Is the Perfect Career for High-Paying and Me Fast-Growing Jobs That Do Not Require A Degree.
