To do what you love, first, love to do (Part I)
# Intro
“Do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”, is a cliche that is as worn out as the ‘W-A-S-D’ keys on a gamer’s keyboard. It might be a cliche abused beyond recognition but it is still a cliche because it is layered with torn strands of truth.
Before you can do what you love, however, you must first love to do.
# Gratitude
If you are not doing what you love it might be out of some obligation or compulsion rather than desire or choice. You might have had to take on that horrible job because of the not-so-horrible pay. You might have social responsibilities that you would not willingly carry. This is, however, no reason to fret, sulk or surrender to the winds of life like a leaf that has been let go by its plant.
Wipe that frown and stop feeling down. While you whine about the traffic on the way to work, some walk barefoot for miles in a vain search for a job. While you crib about how your sandwich does not have enough mayo, some have rice swimming in water for lunch.
Some are more capable and driven to make something of their lives but cannot do so. Those debilitated by chronic illnesses, incapacitated by physical and mental conditions, born at the wrong place and the wrong time, or simply on the wrong end of a genetic draw.
They could have just as easily been in your place and you in theirs but here you are, reading this, spread out like a starfish on your bed while others share the floor for a bed with four others. Be grateful, realize you are lucky, and do whatever you do with all your heart or do not do anything at all.
“Do what you love. Do what you are. Do what you do.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo
Far better to do nothing with a heart and mind as pure as the air after the first rains than to engage with the world with hatred and contempt storming inside. If you farm with disdain, the derision seeps into the soil and poisons the crop. If you write with scorn, you leave invisible yet indelible stains of venom all over the page. Before you can do what you love, you must learn to love to do.
# Freedom of choice
The absolute freedom to do what you want and how you want isn’t as glorious as it sounds out to be. Total freedom is, more often than not, is a bane and not a blessing. Complete freedom sounds liberating but tends to be paralyzing; terrifying rather than encouraging.
Think of a visit to a restaurant that has a menu that runs like the Lord of the Rings; or a store that has more aisles than the letters in the English alphabet. Too many choices leave you confused, depressed, and anxious. This is why you would, most times, have Amazon make your shopping choices and Google tell you what websites to surf in the ocean that is the internet.
Too many choices always leave you second-guessing; comparing and doubting. Too many choices spoil and disappoint. To rise above this analysis paralysis there is one simple truth you must come to realize, never agonize over your options. You can never make the right choice because there isn’t one.
The happiest with their choices are not those who make the right choices but rather those who make their choices right. They know it is not about the choices but what you do with them.
You might not have absolute freedom but you still retain a relative one. You might not be able to choose among a mountain of choices but you still get to choose from an anthill of one. No matter what you choose, take pride in your choice for it is you who got to make it. Own it and own your life. Make the choice. Make something out of it; lest it make you.
# External and internal
Do not harp on all that pulls you back, focus on that which pushes you forward. If you look for excuses, you find only excuses. If you do not search for inner strength, you become weak. You find and become only that which you seek. If you do not wish to move forward, you will struggle to jump potholes while others leap over mountains.
It is not that which is outside that impedes you but all that is within. You are what stops you from discovering and doing what you love. You are your greatest ally and your own worst enemy.
Inaction, fear, and doubt are the ticking time bombs that cause the implosion and lead to your collapse. You know this but you choose to ignore it by telling yourself lies. You cram yourself with them till you swell up into a conscious balloon of self-deceit. Over time you forget what it is that you love to do because you can only remember the lies.
“To do what you love first find what you love.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
