Your Real Work

“What you do instead of your real work, is your real work.” (Roger Ebert)

Today, a few wise people are beginning to “get” a critical issue.   They say: “Do what you love.”  Gary Vaynerchuk hammers away at it.  So does Seth Godin.  Pavlina must have written 500 posts related to this.  Stephen Covey and Jack Canfield have made helping others find their Life’s Work into their Life’s Work.

Think about the quote above.  “What you do instead of your real work, is your real work.”  Do you go to the garage to work on projects?  Do you write?   Do you code?  What do your friends ask your advice about?  Are you a Cyclist or a Martial Artist?  Is there something that you do, just because you love the doing?  That is your real work. 

 This is simple, but painfully profound. 

Jack Canfield put it like this: “Discover what you love to do as early as possible.  Then arrange your life around making a living at it.”

With today’s technology you can make your living doing almost anything.  Vaynerchuk’s favorite example is Smurfs.  He says that if you really, really love Smurfs then you can make $60k a year talking about Smurfs.  Not being a Smurf lover, I won’t test this out.  But you get the idea.  Watch yourself closely.  What do you do, or wish you did?  What kinds of interactions do you need?  What kind do you miss?  What is remarkable from your past? 

Warren Beatty summed it up well when he said: ”Success is when you don’t know if you’re working or playing.”  This kind of life begins by choosing to do what you love to do.

Begin today, don’t waste the only Life you really own.

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