Love_in_the_blue_sky“IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, you’ll never work a day in your life.”  This quote has been attributed to a variety of people, so I’m not going to pick just one.

It has a strong foundation of truth in it.  I do indeed love my work, and it’s totally changed my outlook on my career, indeed, the rest of my life.

But I don’t love it all the time.

And I don’t love every part of it.  There’s grunge work and boring parts and annoyances.

I believe that this highlights the difference between enjoyment and enduring love.  They’re quite different things.

Enjoyment is a short term experience.  Good food.  A fun activity.  Time with my friend.  Getting “in the zone.”

But anything that’s enduring is going to have good parts and bad parts.  The point is to have enough good parts that they outweigh the bad.

No, that’s not quite right.

It really comes down to long term benefit versus short term ups and downs.  And by long term, I mean multiple years.  Perhaps multiple lifetimes or even centuries if you have a deep appreciation for what’s going on with humanity.

If you can see how you’re making a profound difference in the world, perhaps it even helps you get through the fact that your life is miserable and wretched.  That’s how people become recognized as saints, right?

I have to admit that I’m not there yet.  Fortunately, my life is far from miserable and wretched.  I’m blessed in many ways.

But I do take comfort in the fact that my life seems to be resulting in the improvement of lives I touch through my coaching.  So when I have to pay taxes, or do planning, or drum up my courage to do sales – I’m OK with that.

I love what I do.