I keep hearing this question over and over, like a mantra that others are praying for me. Kind of starts to get laughable when you hear it in strange places from people you don’t even know. Catching it in conversations you over hear in restaurants, the question being posed to someone on a podcast, an old friend emailing you to say that he wants to know the answer.
How can I get paid doing something I love?
Soon you start wondering what exactly the universe is telling you. Is it intended for you? This question is a statement about your life, not just a passing question you overhear in the sushi bar.
But then you need to decide what it is you love to do. Not what you can do and enjoy to make a living, but the thing you love most.
Mine might be writing. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry… I just love to write. When I am stressed I sit down and put those words in prose or add a little more to the same story I have been writing for a decade. I like to think about mindfulness and who I am, where I am going and how I am getting there. I am trying to be a better person too. Trying to slow down, to make less of a signature on my environment.
I used to get paid for writing. A decade ago I was a reporter for a few small-town papers in Oklahoma. I covered the state capitol for these little papers and I loved doing it. I quit because I was greedy. I needed money to start my life with the girl I wanted to marry.
So I left journalism to pursue a career dictated by the dollar. You might enjoy what you are doing and you are getting paid for it; but do you love it?
I do enjoy what I do for a living, I am lucky there. I love the people I work with, again, lucky there. But, I don’t love it. I don’t miss my profession when I am away for a vacation. I miss the people and the experience, but not the actual job.
Would I want to own a dojo and meditation center and work on my chi? Perhaps. Would I want to get paid to write? Sure. (Let me know if you want to make a donation to the Keep-Matt-Writing find.) Could I be a life-coach? Greg might think so, but no one else I am sure. (I tell Greg to think that.)
Really, what do I love enough to do that as a way to live?
Maybe if I keep asking myself the same question pretty soon I will answer it too.
What about you?
you are a good writer.