Do what you love . . love what you do
When I submitted the final, final edits for the second edition of WordPress For Dummies today - I breathed a tremendously huge sigh of relief. There is nothing like that feeling of accomplishment to carry you through to the next day. This was a big project - - just as it was the first time around, and having it finished, finally not only lifts a great big weight off the ol’ shoulders…but it made me reflect a bit. As I’m uploading the last and final files..I could feel myself physically relax. I sat back and thought - - I really do love what I do.
I’ve held several jobs in my lifetime. Some I liked, some I didn’t. Jobs like:
- McDonalds (would you like fries with that? yea, that was me)
- Disc Jockey for a local, polka radio station (yep. Polka)
- Lead singer in a local R&B band
- Waitress at a local greasy spoon
- Bartender at a local night club… a local bowling alley..and a local 5-star restaurant - - simultaneously!
- Secretary…receptionist…data entry clerk
- Community organizer for the local Chamber of Commerce
- Nursing Assistant
- Registered Nurse (my longest… that career spanned 10 years, or so)
- Web and graphic designer and web host (current)
- Author (also current)
Some of those jobs were held out of neccessity. I didn’t really like them - but they paid the bills, so I tolerated them.
Some of those jobs were stepping stones to other jobs (nursing assistant - to - registered nurse, for example).
Growing up, I was always told to do what I love. Find something you’re good at and make a living out of it.. you’ll be happier. Unfortunately, starting out as a young adult - - the job that I loved didn’t pay the bills (the R&B singer gig). So I had to move on to a job that DID pay the bills . . leaving me absolutely NO time to do the job that I love.
Sigh.
At the age of 24, I graduated from nursing school with a degree in nursing and sat for the board exams to obtain my Registered Nurse licensure. I was pretty much set for life in an industry that paid well and offered a great deal of job security. I pretty much thought I would be a nurse until the day I retire.
Until I started tinkering around with graphic design and CSS and began to dabble in code. I found a great hobby that allowed me to de-stress and blow off steam after long, hard days of work in the hospital. It was a creative outlet that I soon began to realize was soothing the savage beast. Design satisfied the creative side of me… something I had lost when I walked away from music, so many years ago. It would be many years before I began to make a few bucks at it - - and several more years before I could make a living from it.
Although, I never once thought I would make a living with it - - always assuming that nursing would be where I would stay for my entire working life. Nursing was one of those ok jobs. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was . . . fine. I was good at it - - excelled in it, really - and took pride in that fact. But I wasn’t doing what I loved… nor was I loving what I did.
I am a true believer that if you do not love what you do - - it shows through at the end of the day. People can start to see it in your work, no matter what it is. For me? I didn’t want to get to that point in nursing - - nothing worse than being cared for by a nurse who doesn’t like what she’s doing, eh?
Today, with my design career and, most recently, book writing gig — I can truly say that I finally love what I do.. and am doing what I love. I make a decent living at it, and I’m very thankful for that….and grateful that I don’t have to focus my attentions and time on other side jobs in order to make ends meet, like I used to. I can really focus on what I enjoy doing and what I’m good at.
Are you doing what you love…and loving what you do? If not - are you working towards that end? It’s not an easy thing, no doubt. First priorities are putting food on the table and paying those bills - which, like me, forced you into jobs that you don’t really like - - but become a necessary evil as a means to and end. When I opted to quit my nursing career to pursue design, I really had to spend a lot of time to take a real, long hard look at where I was at, and where I wanted to be. If the day comes that I’m no longer happy with design — I will take a similar look and, hopefully, will be able to make changes where I can pursue that lofty goal of loving what I do..and doing what I love.
For me, it took a great deal of time, struggle, sleepless nights and endless days . . but I got there. And yet, I still wonder if I’ll be doing the same thing next year? If I’m lucky enough, I will be.
And on that note - I shall finally sleep. ‘Nite!
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Thanks for the welcome Lisa!
@Barce and @Mike - sounds like the two of you are doing something you really enjoy, that is great! Mike.. good for you in overcoming that fear of public speaking.. I haven’t quite gotten there yet
@Frosty - yes, the WP dev folks do keep me on my toes, for sure
@Beth - sounds like we have a bit in common in that regard.
@Simon - sounds like you need to get behind the camera a bit more often!
@Mark - what’s not to love about design and coding ?
@Issac - I moderate comments on this blog. If you haven’t left a comment here before, then your comments go into the moderation queue until I have the chance to review and approve them. It’s been a busy week - I just found the time now Welcome!
Okay now I’m totally confused :- how did both of my posts suddenly appear?
I’m finally doing what I love, and love what I’m doing. I did a whole range of jobs in a few years. Most of them were to pay the bills.
Not my wife has a well paying job, so I can finally do what I love, without the thought in the back of my mind “what if I don’t make enough money”.
I design, code and have a few side-projects.. and I’m absolutely loving it.
I can’t find a contact information… you know if I was someone spamming some really nonsensical thing like: Great blog! Without even reading it I’d fully understand you cutting off my comments. But the fact I subscribed and do read your posts before commenting and that you keep cutting them out is what I can’t understand. Any reasons for this?
If I hadn’t read this how would I know you had a bunch of jobs you didn’t like, or that you wanted to be a singer, or that you got into being a nurse and it was an ok job but something you didn’t really love or that you began to dabble in code and CSS becoming an outlet for your creativity? What you thought I just scan through it?
And then I post my opinion of what is happening to me of how computer science even though I love it isn’t what I’d like to work on it and for some reason you simply cut me off without even giving me a reason. Am I posting something bad? Am I doing something wrong?
I find myself in a sort of opposite effect right now. I mean I started studying computer science because I do love computers and coding. But when I have to work on it I get so sucked up into that world that I neglect everything else. I have been about 24+ hours almost straight with only a few gaps of sleep when I sit down to program. Worse still is the fact I tend to go it alone even ON a team, not because I am not a team player but rather because once I sit down I can’t stop until I KNOW I got the coding right. So now I find myself into a situation where one of my hobbies becomes sort of a slave driver for me. So then I decided to move it to a complete hobby: program for myself and the things I like such as games or fun applications. However I am not even currently doing that, spending more time in the designing department before I even begin to create whatever I am planning with my team.
So basically now I figure I found something I am good at and I probably will enjoy and won’t be a slave driver: law. More specifically State Attorney for prosecution of Federal crimes. I guess I got this fascination since I started serving as a federal juror. Its really fascinating. Sometimes it seems like taken out of a Miami Vice or a mobster movie. Some cases are very intricate, well most of them are, after all most Federal crimes are like that.
And so I decided to shift to something that I love for work and keep my other love for a hobby.
[…] A little addition to this I just found. A lady who also blogs had a post on almost this same topic. http://justagirlintheworld.com/do-what-you-love-love-what-you-do/ […]
Hey, great post on work…there are times at work when I feel the same way, just kind of stuck in the office. However when I am given a camera and sent out to shoot something I get really excited.
[…] I was writing this post about how I’m really lukewarm on being a nurse and I came upon this post by Lisa Sabin Wilson, a wordpress designer who is a former […]
I also firmly believe that one should do what he/she love to do … otherwise you will not have the passion for the work you are doing.
I feel like the future “me” could have written this. I started out a web designer, ended up a nurse, and now would like to get back into web design. The funny thing is that if Wordpress and blogs had existed in the late nineties, it’s quite possible that I never would have become frustrated at web design and switched to nursing.
Don’t you breath in too deep, from the looks of the WP gang, they will be on version 3.0 soon enough and you’ll be back at the books again for a follow up (I hope). I will check out your latest release once it’s published.