Turning What You Love Into What You Do
By Patrick O’Connor
An initial lesson from the Road Less Traveled (RLT) is that “it’s okay not to know” (see my previous blog entry by that title for reference). But we need to find out what we want to do. This is easier than most people think. It just takes some initiative and effort keeping in mind that there are many stops along the career continuum. In the words of Confucius, “find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”
“What you love” is the easy part because it is your passion. Turning it into “what you do” is more involved. You must do something to convert what you love into a livelihood. Passion is essential but it often needs to be coupled with knowledge and skills that relate to a job or career. This usually means education. Some people prefer to be self-taught and go to the school of hard knocks. This path does lead to an education but in some ways is much harder than formal education.
Passion (what you love) and education/training (what you do) together are the formula for career satisfaction. The education part can be anything from a high school career program (cosmetology e.g.) to an associate degree (cybersecurity) to a bachelor’s degree (accounting) or beyond (dentist). One thing is for certain is that education and lifelong learning move people along the various steps of the career continuum. Here are two examples:
Video games have been very popular with teenagers for many years. In fact, many previous teenagers are still passionate gamers as adults joining another generation of passionate teenagers. Some might look at this as wasting time while others think of it as an obsession. The fact is video gaming is a huge, worldwide industry with a wide assortment of career opportunities. If someone is willing to invest some time and initiative, a world of career opportunities emerge.
All industries have trade/professional associations devoted to supporting a specific industry and those working in it. A great source to examine the video game career opportunities is to visit the website of the International Game Design Association (https://igda.org/) . This group provides extensive information on everything related to the video game industry including career opportunities. One resource is the “career center” where career openings from around the world are listed. The group’s career mission is “to support and empower game developers in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers. We offer many resources for both finding new opportunities and to improve your skills, knowledge, and applications to ensure you are provided with the best chance to succeed.” Sounds familiar. The website also includes dozens of local IGDA chapters with contact information for networking. This can be the start of turning what you love into what you do.
Another example of this is the Staging Diva.
“I’ve loved decorating since I was a kid playing with dolls— making houses and furniture out of cardboard boxes, scraps of fabric and anything else I could find lying around the house.” This is Debra Gould’s comment from her website https://stagingdiva.com/.
Home staging has become a popular way to enhance the appearance of a home in preparation for selling it. Debra had done some staging of her own while buying and selling houses part-time. She realized she could teach other people to do the same and the Staging Diva was born. In effect, she combined her passion for decorating with her education/experience to figure out how to turn what she loves into what she does. She has a degree in marketing, an MBA and extensive corporate work experience.
She decided to add another chapter to her career continuum. Her comment sums up her desire to build on her education/experience by creating another opportunity to fit her lifestyle. She shares, “As an adult into my marketing career and a single mom in my 40s, I no longer wanted to be buried in high-pressure work. I wanted to be there for my daughter before and after school. Plus, I was determined to show her that it IS possible to follow your creative dreams and still support yourself. It just took me several years to figure out how!”
She realized her natural talent for decorating a house to sell could be a service other home sellers would pay for! “It was an interesting journey taking my gifts and passions and figuring out how to make a living from my creativity while raising a kid on my own. My becoming a home stager changed everything for us!”
Anyone along the career continuum can learn from these two examples to seek out opportunities that enable them to turn what they love into what they do. The next segment of this blog will look at the concept that “everything is connected.”
Photo courtesy pexels.com
Child Advocacy Artist George E. Miller
If what you love to do helps someone and with a little imagination you can envision it helping many others in much the same way, then that is a road worth traveling!
patrick oconnor
excellent observation George and you certainly speak from experience as it seems much of your work and life are all about helping others.
Matt Keffer
Great advice Pat! Can’t wait for my son to read it. He loves gaming and is interested in pursuing it as an occupation.
patrick oconnor
Thanks Matt. I hope he will share a comment after he reads it.
Nadia Gibson
I think specifically in my generation as a college student many of us are starting to do more of what we are truly interested in, but there is still parts of us that want to do the things that make the most money or is what someone else told us to do.