I’ve been thinking about what I do for a living.

Larry Madill, a blogger in Los Angeles breaking into the film industry, asked inlearning curves:

Now I wonder… Is that an impossible goal? Is it impossible to love what you do? Does it get so far under your own skin that eventually you get so disconnected from the reason you love doing it, thereby neutering it into just another “Job”? I wonder and I worry.

It takes passion and perserverance to build a life rather that earn a living. Hell, it takes something special to just earn a living for most of the world’s population.

Belief that it’s worth it makes us go on when the obstacles pile up. Or passion drives us to work out another way.

“They don’t pay me enough for this” can only be a joke when you do something you love. I remember when I first started working in IT, “You’ll pay me this much to play with computers? Cool!”

That doesn’t mean it’s all a bed of roses. There are always tasks and times that are no fun whatsoever. But on balance in the western world it is possible to pursue a vocation that inspires, sustains and encourages us.

I also don’t believe that a career choice must be for life. It is sad when I meet doctors or lawyers who feel trapped in their vocation because of the time they’ve investing in professional training. Financial realities often make career changes difficult, doesn’t that make the effort to change all the more rewarding?

Ah! So it comes down to the frame of reference. What about what I do makes it appealing? If I can’t “reframe” that into something positive and exciting then something has to change. Occassionally that change must be to my thought process and belief. Sometimes it is time to switch jobs or even careers.