Doing what you love


DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

Mario D’Couto

            It is said that when you do the thing you love, you will not work a single day of your life and rightly so because work becomes your enjoyment. Malcolm Forbes sums it up in the following words, “I think the foremost quality -  there’s no success without it – really is to love what you do. If you love it, you do it well and there’s no success if you don’t do well what you’re working at.”

            Fr. Sajith Cyriac, in his book, “Celebrate your failures” says that one of the reasons why we fail is because we pursue things that do not resonate with our deepest selves. He quotes Steve Jobs who said, “If you don’t love it, you’ll fail.” No other decision can have a greater impact on your life than deciding to do what you love. When you do what you do, all the energy, focus, motivation and discipline you’ll ever need to take action will be infinitely yours through the genuineness of your enthusiasm, passion and drive. Doing what you love will free you from the burden of having to do it and you will devote more time and energy to it. You will never encounter such things as laziness or ‘not in a mood of doing it’.

            You are bound to produce far more quality results when you do what you love. Therefore, do not become the rabbit chasing the carrot – unless You want the chase to last your whole life. Instead, follow your heart and start doing what you love. Until you begin moving towards doing that which you actually love, nothing is going to feel right for you.

            Yet, there is a catch to this. Not everything in life, we do or come across would be appealing to us or we would like and yet if we don’t do it we would have consequences to fact like may be, your job or some other important task which may not seem appealing enough. What do we do then? Simple! Learn to love what you do. Try to look at the brighter side of the things that you don’t feel like doing and focus on that. The more you focus on that, you’ll begin to reap the benefits and you will find your life becoming more fruitful.

            Allow me to share my own personal experience. There are so many things in my life where sometimes I feel discouraged or like quitting and yet I now if I do, there are consequences to face. But nonetheless, more than fearing the consequences, I try to look at it how it would benefit me and others. For instance, in my work in the office, I have targets to meet, irate customers to handle, my boss to answer to (if I don’t perform) and a host of so many other things attached to it. If I were to fear it or dread about carrying out my job, I know I would have to face the consequences. But nonetheless, I try to look at it from a positive angle. Meeting targets would be achievable if you are able to help the customer what he or she wants and when you understand that the customer is just like you, a human being in need, your job is to assist him/her in the best possible way. Money is a by – product but that should not be the priority. When you give your best in what you do, you will automatically see the fruits.

            Apart from that, I also have some other hobbies which gives me a reason to carry on. I love reading, writing and composing music (although I have not yet uploaded any of my music online but plan to do it soon). All these articles that you see (this and the others) are a result of my life experiences and the things that I have read which have shaped me, one way or another. These hobbies give me a break from my work and stimulates my creative mind, trying to come up with something new. Yet sometimes, I feel that I also want to get back to pencil shading, something that I was good at in the past (hopefully will get back to that soon also).  From a psychological point of view, pursuing a hobby (mind you, I am not referring to TV watching although at times it may help), not only stimulates your creative mind but it diverts your mind from the other problems in your life that you may be facing. What’s best is that while this is happening, your subconscious mind somehow helps you to either come up with a solution to the problem or it helps you to develop a new perspective where you will be in a better frame of mind to handle or cope with it (for more information, please refer my article, “’Take a break’ or ‘Juggle with different topics’ – A Path to Creativity").

            I believe that each of us is gifted in some way. So, find out what you’re good at and be a master at it. Let’s not forget the words of Albert Einstein who said, “God did not create the world by throwing a pair of dice.” God does not create junk and He certainly has not made you like that. I think the best honour we can do is to discover our talents and use it for His glory.

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