How passion for your life can pay off for you

From every person I can think of who is good at their jobs, and I recognize as being an outstanding individual, I am seeing a pattern — they love what they do and have a passion for it.

Take my mother for instance. She LOVES her job. Every morning, she’s up early, there on time, and fairly happy when she returns. There are bad days of course, but not many.

Or this wonderful director I had the pleasure of working for.

He used to tell me how he jumped out of bed each morning and couldn’t wait to get to work and start a new day. I had never seen him in a bad mood for the entire year I was there, and he genuinely infected everyone with his go-getting, happy attitude.

I’ve even met a TTC bus driver recently who have told me that they had epiphanies where a loved one died recently, and they realized life was too short to be unhappy.

They had a passion for their job, but they had a renewed passion, appreciation for life, and were grateful for every little thing.

All of these people have rose-colored glasses on, but they’re the ones who chose to tint them pink.

WHY WE HAVE TO LOVE WHAT WE DO

This is why a lot of people who are successful, will always give this age-old, sage-old advice of: Be passionate about what you do or you’ll never make it.

They know that if you don’t like what you’re doing, you won’t be good at it, and if you aren’t good at it, you won’t be successful which means you won’t make as much money as if you did something you loved.

It’s a cycle, but it doesn’t have to be vicious.

If your goal is to make a lot of money, then your goal should be to find out what you truly believe in, are passionate about and to go for it.

Once that happens, even if you work 100+ hours a week, it won’t feel like work to you — it’ll feel like you’re doing something you love, and that’s when the money will follow.

A JOB IS NOT JUST A JOB

Having a job is not just waking up, going to work, putting in the time and waiting for payday — it’s realizing that you are spending 40 hours a week (or more), and you better darn well enjoy it, or else each day will feel like an eternity and a half.

People also respond positively to others who love their job, and it in turn leaves them a great impression of you and who you are, which could be a great benefit to you in the future, even if you can’t see it now.

What you can see now, is that it pays immensely to love what you do — you’re saner, happier, healthier and less stressed about your life.

SO HOW DO I START BECOMING PASSIONATE?

Frankly, if you are in something you truly loathe each morning, try and figure out the top 3 reasons why you hate your job, and/or where you’d like to be instead.

Could it be the late night hours?

How about the fact that you feel pigeonholed and not allowed autonomy?

Or perhaps you just don’t like the salary!

Whatever it is, figure out what your top 3 dislikes are, and then see what you can do to change your current job situation (perhaps ask for more money), and/or figure out a game plan to get to where you want to be.

Then, it’s just a question of determination, persistence and hard work because the execution of these brilliant plans is always 90% sweat and hard work 😉

So my advice? If it’s truly worth it to you, and it’s what you want… then try.

As Thomas Edison famously quoted:

I have not failed.

I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.