Life is short. Stop doing work that you can barely tolerate and start pursuing what you love. It’s really that simple. I just listened to author Steven Pressfield tell a story about how he wrote for nearly fifteen years before he sold his first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance.
Stories like Pressfield’s remind me that we can do work we love if we will commit to the staying power of grit. Maybe you’re like my friend Elaine who dreamed of hosting a backyard sit-down dinner for thirty friends? She dreamed it, saw it in her heart and set on a twelve-month vision quest to birth her dream. Don’t confuse doing work you love with compensation. Most of the time doing the work for many years precedes any type of compensation.
Too many people never do what they love. Even worse, they don’t ever explore the frontier to find what it is they love. Find what you love, invest your emotional energy, your money, and your creative mojo into birthing your dream into a reality. If you don’t, the truth will rot a hole in your gut for the rest of your life. Or as Pressfield says in his War of Art, “our unlived lives”.
Don’t let that be you. Find it. Do it. Love it. You’re worth it.
This post is an excerpt from the Field Guide: 99 Ways to Navigate Your Best Life. Download the full guide here.
