Following Your Passion Vs. Doing What's Valuable

[Gmartz]

This is that debate that everyone always chats in regards to

work and career...curious to know what the L.Shackers here think.

 

 

It's the great debate of choosing to Follow Your Passion in life/career choice

versus Just Finding/Doing Valuable Work in life/career choice... and eventually

you may become passionate about it.

[Foxhall]

Id say if you have a bit of money to spare- follow your passion,

 

if your under pressure financially- then its all about a weekly/monthly salary and your passion has to take a backseat,

 

personally follow my passion is the preferred option- I want to be challenged and energised- not bored.

[Gmartz]

Id say if you have a bit of money to spare- follow your passion,

 

if your under pressure financially- then its all about a weekly/monthly salary and your passion has to take a backseat,

 

personally follow my passion is the preferred option- I want to be challenged and energised- not bored.

 

 

I see your point, completely.

[Fekenaws]

Personally, I do what's valuable at work so I can pursue my passions in my spare time.

 

I think this arrangement has led me to have a happy life so far, granted, I don't hate my job by any stretch of the imagination. It's just bland filler for my life outside of work.

[Gmartz]

Personally, I do what's valuable at work so I can pursue my passions in my spare time.

 

I think this arrangement has led me to have a happy life so far, granted, I don't hate my job by any stretch of the imagination. It's just bland filler for my life outside of work.

 

 

I admire this belief and have been trying to instill it in my own thinking.

 

 

Having a passion for guitar playing is great... but if you have a family to

support and responsibilities, playing guitar is not going to pay the bills.

Unless you luck out some how, but you can't gamble with something

like that when you have a family to support.

[preraph]

I followed my passion, which was music business, and that was my sole focus. It wasn't an option. Now, as far as playing guitar, etc., you can have a day job while you get yourself good enough to go out and try to follow it as a full-time career. And one thing I know is that if a person even feels it's an option not to play guitar or pursue a band career, then they should do something else, because it's a hard road unless it's your overriding passion.

 

I certainly knew local bands who got good and loved what they did, had day jobs, but then flinched when it came to doing what it took to launch nationally. I thought it was a shame. But those were outnumbered by the bands who just weren't good enough to hope they would get big, didn't have good original material, etc. If you get an opportunity that is your passion, you need to be ready to run with it. Otherwise, just keep it a hobby.

[Gmartz]

...If you get an opportunity that is your passion, you need to be ready to run with it. Otherwise, just keep it a hobby.

 

 

This makes sense. And, I know what you're saying. I knew guys that were so good but never pushed a lot harder to make it happen for themselves on a pro level. They stayed in the same band with terrible songs, talked about how it would be cool to tour and make it as a paid musician, but never took a chance for whatever reason. Yet, I could see it was their passion because they always talked about it, were obsessed with it, said they wanted it, etc. Then, I knew guys that were half as talented but had the non-stop drive to make it, we're always networking, and made it.. and are still doing it to this day very successfully.

[preraph]

It's hard to all be on the same page as a band unit. Like that one local band, they one member who held them back because he looked very outdated and refused to cut his hair and look the part (punk band). They eventually did let him go. Then that band opened for a notorious punk band and actually got a column in Rolling Stone, but that's when they flinched. They stayed put. It's a lot to uproot. Maybe it was the right thing for them, but they could have had a proper record deal and instead they opted to pay for making their own recordings and had no distribution except locally. I guess with them it was a passion for the music but not so much the stardom or they'd have done what it took. It was only a step away.

[Watercolors]

Many famous artists, writers, painters, photographers, etc.,. all had boring day jobs while they pursued their true passions on the side. Some quit their day jobs, whereas some kept them. It just depends on the person and their circumstances and luck, I think.

[basil67]

I think that doing what you're passionate about for a job is oversold. When you consider that most retire from work when they can, it's safe to say that work wasn't a passion.

 

I also suspect that teaching our kids to work where their passion is contributes to them expecting too much from their work. Sometimes, work is just work and it's gotta be done.

[Veronica73]

If you can make a decent living doing what you are passionate about... then great. Do that.

 

If you can’t do that, then get a job that doesn’t take so much out of you that you have no energy to pursue your passion in your free time. And in your free time pursue your passion. (And don’t get into debt!!)

 

Work is supposed to be useful to other people. That’s why they pay you. Not everybody’s passions are useful or valuable to other people.

[Gmartz]

Work is supposed to be useful to other people. That’s why they pay you. Not everybody’s passions are useful or valuable to other people.

 

 

I agree, totally. So that's why I think it's important (especially when you have responsibilities or a family to support) to do work that is valuable in order to make good money to follow your passion on the side.

 

 

I think that doing what you're passionate about for a job is oversold.....

I also suspect that teaching our kids to work where their passion is contributes to them expecting too much from their work. Sometimes, work is just work and it's gotta be done.

 

 

I agree. And I was a bit brainwashed by this idea for a lot of years. I wish that I had had parents that would have pushed me to do something valuable but they sold me on the dream of following my passion and being a free spirit because Dad didn't care and Mom didn't want me to be miserable in life.

 

 

But in some ways it can backfire on some people when they are fed that idea because as you said, they will come to expect things from their work and possibly not ever be happy. Sometimes work is just work, you aren't supposed to love or enjoy every aspect of it.