I haven’t written to you much lately, because I’ve been putting that time into writing Way of the Three-Year-Old Why. But this week I’ve realized something that I thought would be worth sharing with you. Many of you are following along for the progress on the book, so let me tell you that the plot is developing nicely. As I mentioned last time, I’m really getting to know these characters.
I love that I am able to follow your creative process! I appreciate that you share with us all. I am still learning about what lights me up, because I have been a people pleaser my entire life. It has only come to pass recently that I realized I wasn’t sure which parts of my life were actually “me.” It has been such a strange journey trying to weed my way through that. Your thoughts about how a calling does not necessarily have to be what one does for a living really have made me think. Our society pushes this cookie-cutter notion that if you "follow your passion and do what you love you'll never work a day in your life.” My thoughts are this: if I monetize what I love and rely on it for income will it still be what I love? Would this be more likely to remove the joy? Also, do some people need to toil away at something (work) to truly be able to experience the full joy of laying their work down to dive into their passion? This lends to the notion that one can never experience true joy without knowing true pain. Thank you for making me ponder. I look forward to hearing more from you!
Here's the TL;DR, just in case (spoiler: this is also the last paragraph below).
Bottom line: there isn't an easy answer. I can tell you that even though I have made writing (and speaking) my life's work, I have never lost my passion for writing. I will dig into this more as I develop the book, in fact. The protagonist for "Way of the Three-Tear-Old Why" is wrestling with exactly such questions. I don't know that I have THE answer, but I have what may be AN answer.
Now for more depth.
Second (and I'm not certain Substack will show these in the order I wrote them, so if you're seeing this first, check the other reply), there is your observation that I can really relate to: if I monetize what I love and rely on it for income will it still be what I love? I have ruined some things in my life that way. I loved photography as a hobby for instance, so I got work as a news photographer and opened a one-hour photo processing shop (back when that was a thing). It became "just work." I don't have pictures of my kids from that time because after I'd spent the whole day taking pictures, I didn't want to come home and take more pictures.
I saw an interview once with an astronaut. That was the "dream job" for a whole generation of kids. But he said, "When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than to be an astronaut. But after doing this for a decade now, it has become just a job. I sometimes get up in the morning and think, 'Doggone it, I have to go put on that suit where you can't scratch when it itches.'"
Anything can become "just a job."
Bottom line: there isn't an easy answer. I can tell you that even though I have made writing (and speaking) my life's work, I have never lost my passion for writing. I will dig into this more as I develop the book, in fact. The protagonist for "Way of the Three-Tear-Old Why" is wrestling with exactly such questions. I don't know that I have THE answer, but I have what may be AN answer.
In the spirit of this lazy Sunday morning, I will keep this reply fairly short. I think THE answer is that there is —insert drumroll here if you like— no answer. We are not able to tell the future and every person is so vastly different. I did think it was refreshing (and thought provoking, obviously) to read your insights about following a calling even if it is not your job, because there are so many self-proclaimed gurus with masterclasses that say otherwise all over social platforms. I can’t wait to hear more about the WOTTYOW. :) Have a wonderful week!
You raise a wise question. I will break this reply up into two parts.
First, I've heard two versions of the quote you mention. Both Mark Twain and Confucius are credited for originally saying, "Choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life," but there is no evidence either said that.
However, an interviewer for the New York Times did get the following from Twain on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1905:
Mark Twain will be 70 years old on Thanksgiving Day, and he has never done a day's work in his life. He told me so himself, sitting in one of the cheerful, spacious rooms of the old-fashioned stately New York house which he will probably call his city home as long as he lives. I probably started upon hearing this unlooked-for statement from the lips of the good, gray humorist, for he repeated emphatically:
"No, Sir, not a day's work in all my life. What I have done I have done, because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.
"Who was it who said, "Blessed is the man who has found his work"? Whoever it was he had the right idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work - not somebody else's work. The work that is really a man's own work is play and not work at all. Cursed is the man who has found some other man's work and cannot lose it. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great. How can they when their souls are in a ferment of revolt against the employment of their hands and brains? The product of slavery, intellectual or physical, can never be great."
That actually makes a lot of sense, but note that such an insight does NOT include any guarantee of making money at it.
The other version goes something like, "Follow your passion and the money will follow." That's a whole different claim, and one not supported by research. It is true that following your passion makes it more likely that you will make money at it, simply because passion will help you to stick with something long enough to get good at it, and so people are more likely to pay you for it. But it's not that passion automatically leads to money.
Having said that, there is some research (and common sense) that says you can pursue money and achieve it, but be miserable. You can pursue passion (or, rather, something that matters to you) and you may or may not make money, but you are likely to be happy. That actually fits the spirit of Twain's real quote.
I love that I am able to follow your creative process! I appreciate that you share with us all. I am still learning about what lights me up, because I have been a people pleaser my entire life. It has only come to pass recently that I realized I wasn’t sure which parts of my life were actually “me.” It has been such a strange journey trying to weed my way through that. Your thoughts about how a calling does not necessarily have to be what one does for a living really have made me think. Our society pushes this cookie-cutter notion that if you "follow your passion and do what you love you'll never work a day in your life.” My thoughts are this: if I monetize what I love and rely on it for income will it still be what I love? Would this be more likely to remove the joy? Also, do some people need to toil away at something (work) to truly be able to experience the full joy of laying their work down to dive into their passion? This lends to the notion that one can never experience true joy without knowing true pain. Thank you for making me ponder. I look forward to hearing more from you!
Here's the TL;DR, just in case (spoiler: this is also the last paragraph below).
Bottom line: there isn't an easy answer. I can tell you that even though I have made writing (and speaking) my life's work, I have never lost my passion for writing. I will dig into this more as I develop the book, in fact. The protagonist for "Way of the Three-Tear-Old Why" is wrestling with exactly such questions. I don't know that I have THE answer, but I have what may be AN answer.
Now for more depth.
Second (and I'm not certain Substack will show these in the order I wrote them, so if you're seeing this first, check the other reply), there is your observation that I can really relate to: if I monetize what I love and rely on it for income will it still be what I love? I have ruined some things in my life that way. I loved photography as a hobby for instance, so I got work as a news photographer and opened a one-hour photo processing shop (back when that was a thing). It became "just work." I don't have pictures of my kids from that time because after I'd spent the whole day taking pictures, I didn't want to come home and take more pictures.
I saw an interview once with an astronaut. That was the "dream job" for a whole generation of kids. But he said, "When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than to be an astronaut. But after doing this for a decade now, it has become just a job. I sometimes get up in the morning and think, 'Doggone it, I have to go put on that suit where you can't scratch when it itches.'"
Anything can become "just a job."
Bottom line: there isn't an easy answer. I can tell you that even though I have made writing (and speaking) my life's work, I have never lost my passion for writing. I will dig into this more as I develop the book, in fact. The protagonist for "Way of the Three-Tear-Old Why" is wrestling with exactly such questions. I don't know that I have THE answer, but I have what may be AN answer.
In the spirit of this lazy Sunday morning, I will keep this reply fairly short. I think THE answer is that there is —insert drumroll here if you like— no answer. We are not able to tell the future and every person is so vastly different. I did think it was refreshing (and thought provoking, obviously) to read your insights about following a calling even if it is not your job, because there are so many self-proclaimed gurus with masterclasses that say otherwise all over social platforms. I can’t wait to hear more about the WOTTYOW. :) Have a wonderful week!
You raise a wise question. I will break this reply up into two parts.
First, I've heard two versions of the quote you mention. Both Mark Twain and Confucius are credited for originally saying, "Choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life," but there is no evidence either said that.
However, an interviewer for the New York Times did get the following from Twain on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1905:
Mark Twain will be 70 years old on Thanksgiving Day, and he has never done a day's work in his life. He told me so himself, sitting in one of the cheerful, spacious rooms of the old-fashioned stately New York house which he will probably call his city home as long as he lives. I probably started upon hearing this unlooked-for statement from the lips of the good, gray humorist, for he repeated emphatically:
"No, Sir, not a day's work in all my life. What I have done I have done, because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.
"Who was it who said, "Blessed is the man who has found his work"? Whoever it was he had the right idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work - not somebody else's work. The work that is really a man's own work is play and not work at all. Cursed is the man who has found some other man's work and cannot lose it. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great. How can they when their souls are in a ferment of revolt against the employment of their hands and brains? The product of slavery, intellectual or physical, can never be great."
That actually makes a lot of sense, but note that such an insight does NOT include any guarantee of making money at it.
The other version goes something like, "Follow your passion and the money will follow." That's a whole different claim, and one not supported by research. It is true that following your passion makes it more likely that you will make money at it, simply because passion will help you to stick with something long enough to get good at it, and so people are more likely to pay you for it. But it's not that passion automatically leads to money.
Having said that, there is some research (and common sense) that says you can pursue money and achieve it, but be miserable. You can pursue passion (or, rather, something that matters to you) and you may or may not make money, but you are likely to be happy. That actually fits the spirit of Twain's real quote.