Work and the pursuit of happiness

[-HvA-]

Very good read that might resonate with a lot of people here:
Do what you love, love what you do: An omnipresent mantra that’s bad for work and workers.

[Jeffrey Borisch]

History is written by the victors, no?

Transcendence is knowing what you can do given all your circumstances in this time and place and learning to be at peace with that. Loving something enough does not make you good at it, nor does doing a mundane job that you are overqualified for make you less of a person.

If you are in the right time and right place and have an opportunity to exploit your "passions", great. If not, "that's bike racing" as they say. I'm not suggesting complacency AT ALL, rather learn how to be comfortable in your own skin and seek forward progress.

I learned all this from my wife.

[Rich Beaudoin]

That is an interesting article.
I think about it often because I don't love my job - but I am very good at it and employers are willing to pay me acceptably well for what I do. I have said many times that I would do what I love IF my wife supported me financially or if we were independently wealthy.
The fact is that the economy would grind to a stop if it depended on only the 'lovable' jobs.
And, speaking as a former bike industry worker, doing what you love can turn what you love doing into tedious work.

[Saab2000]

That is an interesting article.
I think about it often because I don't love my job - but I am very good at it and employers are willing to pay me acceptably well for what I do. I have said many times that I would do what I love IF my wife supported me financially or if we were independently wealthy.
The fact is that the economy would grind to a stop if it depended on only the 'lovable' jobs.
And, speaking as a former bike industry worker, doing what you love can turn what you love doing into tedious work.

Thank you for saying this! I'm good at what I do too. I fit well into my industry for the most part. But I sure as heck don't love it.

At this point I remain in it largely for the money because I'd much rather have time to ride and enjoy doing things I used to do.

For me now it's an exercise in money making and money management and nothing more than that.

[alexstar]

I said this on the Face Book, but I'll reiterate it here: If work was nothing but fun, it would be called "play" and we wouldn't get paid for it.

I like my job, that is enough. My modest income allows me to spend some of my spare time doing what I actually love.

[RickM]

There's a reason why they call it Work.
There's a reason why they pay you to do it.

[AngryScientist]

Cliche for sure, but my dad always said : "they dont call it going to fun every day""

[mimbresman]

I am currently sterilizing petri dishes and will be making agar for a biology lab for this week and next. As teachers, to do the job well, one has to prepare well in advance, plus all the other things that go with the job, but in my home state, teachers are leaving the profession in droves due to the ridiculous new teacher's evaluation (first year of implementation), high health care insurance cost, and now the governor (R) wants to implement a merit pay for pay increases. NM teachers have not had a pay increase in 5 years and are well below the national average. I like what I do for the most part, but it is a difficult and challenging job. The payoff, not really in $$, is seeing your former students succeed beyond HS.

[rydesteel]

Good friend of mine once said "to get up and go to work every day is a fact of life...to get up and go to work at a job you love is a blessing" the older I get the more true it becomes.

[burgess1108]

Interesting timing as this was just published. The couterpoint to DWYL and an interesting example is Steve Jobs espousing that we should all do what we love, while his dreams were being fulfilled by all the employees that Apple employs either directly or indirectly. I love cycling, but I know the reality, for me, is that my passion would become a bit of a nightmare if I had to actually work in the industry day in and day out.

[Saab2000]

There's a reason why they call it Work.
There's a reason why they pay you to do it.

It's a love/hate relationship. It should be mutually beneficial and I don't mind the work I do as much as I mind the operational ineptitude at many stations and in many managerial positions and the constant mind games about the costs. They hired me as a professional to operate their $30,000,000 assets and then quibble over nickels and dimes on my paycheck? That is maddening and that is what is as degrading and fatiguing as anything.

[Nierman]

I gave up climbing a corporate ladder when I bought my first highchair. Kids changed it all for me. I used to think I should've gotten out years ago - I had chances to be with ad agencies but chickened out hearing of peers' nightmare schedules - but I've been w/the same company now 17 years and can honestly say I love who I work with. As an artist I'd be starving anywhere, so I might as well be surrounded with great people and 5 weeks of personal days to keep my sanity and ride bikes with my kids or myself.

[e-RICHIE]

I agree with this atmo -

“Do what you love” disguises the fact that being able to choose a career primarily for personal reward is a privilege, a sign of socioeconomic class. Even if a self-employed graphic designer had parents who could pay for art school and co-sign a lease for a slick Brooklyn apartment, she can bestow DWYL as career advice upon those covetous of her success.

I wasn't aware there was a DWYL movement, but now that I am, I think it wreaks of too much aromatherapy.

[ron l edmiston]

--if only i had this wisdom yesteryear:

"the world is never the less beautiful, though viewed through a chink or knot-hole.." hdt, 1838

never to late,

ronnie with a smile