#108: Do What You Love; Love What You Do

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I feel that after giving you content every single day for the past five years and having conversations with you on social media, I have a strong enough relationship with you to give you the truth, so here it goes. I’m genuinely exhausted with talking to people who hate their job and their life. (I’m coming out with the punches at the beginning of this episode.) I feel a passion and even an anger around this subject that comes from a good place, and it’s growing larger with the more life I live. This is because I am finding that people who hate something about their life isn’t an isolated problem, but rather, a problem that keeps coming up over and over again, with nothing being done about it. That last part is the main problem I have with it. When someone gives up, disregarding any need for change, it’s frustrating to see. These lives that are plagued by regret, the fear of making decisions, the fear of change, and unrealistic expectations that can’t be reached. But of course, someone must want help to actually change their life’s trajectory. In most cases, it took choices to get people where thay are at today, and it will take other choices to get them to love what they do again.

Someone must want help to actually change. Share on X

If this is you, then it’s time to get over what has happened in the past. It’s time to remove yourself from seeing each day as a pity party, and instead, begin seeing it as a daily opportunity to learn something remarkable about yourself and the world around you. Don’t think you can see anything positive in your life? Think again. There’s something in there to be thankful for — I can promise that. Maybe this all sounds harsh, and you may even be angry at what I’m saying here, but it’s the truth.

So, are you going through a rough time, but are ready to make some changes? Great, I’m so excited about that. Even when everything is falling apart and all seems lost, there’s hope. If you’re ready to love what you do, here are three ways to get there:

1. Identify what work you actually love to do.

As the discussions transpire that I told you about earlier, I see that these individuals want to do some other work with their lives, but it’s usually hard for them to put what that work actually is into words. When this happens, their lack of clarity becomes obvious to me. Focusing on the work that we love can only become possible when we identify what that work is. It isn’t enough to only do what we love, but work has to impact people to be fulfilling work.

It isn't enough to only do what you love, but work has to impact people to be fulfilling. Share on X

You only get one shot at life, so you might as well be doing what you love, right? Stop just thinking about it or talking about it, but go after it. Write it out, know what it is that you want to do, and then take action.

2. Make necessary changes to see your dreams become reality.

Stop making excuses and make changes instead. If you’re currently unhappy with your life and the way things are going, then that means you know changes need to be made. But, what changes need to be made and how will you make them? Let’s think about this — what does your ideal life look like? Let’s move on from work, and look at everything else, because maybe it’s not a change of work that you need, but rather a change in your personal life. Once you know what your ideal life looks like, you can then work backwards from there and make each area of life look exactly how you want it to.

Stop making excuses and make changes instead. Share on X

Do you need to begin exercising more often? Studies show that happiness and exercise are linked. Do you need stronger relationships? Research also shows that having great close relationships are linked to happiness. Do you need to forgive someone? Forgiveness and happiness are even linked. Do you feel like you’re lacking on time? Valuing your time is also linked to happiness. Are you lacking on sleep right now? Research shows that sleep and happiness are linked, too. Actually, most of the subjects that I focus on help make you happier, which is why we need to talk about them. You probably didn’t need research to tell you that all of these things are linked to happiness, but if you did, you now have a bunch of links to show you how each example relates to being happier. Of course, genes play a huge role in happiness as well, but again, we need to only focus on what we can change. But the good news is that we can change a lot. And the more we change things to make us happier, the more we will love what we do.

3. Become good at what you do.

Loving what you do and being good at what you do go hand in hand, because when you are good at something, you are growing. When there is no growth taking place, it is hard to fall in love with what you do. Sure, at the beginning you can love something without being good at it, but after showing up time and time again without improvement, you will only encounter frustration, and you’ll most likely give up after repeatedly trying to become better. If you don’t love what you do, you should be honest with yourself to see if you are truly giving it your all to become your very best. Many times, the only thing standing between someone and success is the effort that one is willing to put in to see results. If you are giving it your all and still aren’t seeing improvement, then maybe your efforts would be best used somewhere else — in something that you may love even more.

I want to help you, but you have to help yourself first. I’d love to hear some feedback from you on this podcast, because hearing from you is so important. Email me, contact me on social media, go leave a comment over on the blog — however you want to contact me — I’m available. I want to know what has worked for you and what hasn’t. Let’s reach our dreams together.

Now, go and do what you love, today.