Do What You Love?

Confession, I do not particularly love my job.  It pays enough to support the my basic scheme of life and since I do not equate the damage done by too much sitting to the work related risks of other occupations, it is not destroying my body.  It is much better than mining coal or butchering chickens, but I do not love it. 

My consolation is that while it is anonymous and mostly boring and, on a rare occasion, involves bodily fluids, I do think it is "good work."  By that I mean it provides a service to the public.  I think I am good at it, providing care and attention where it is needed.  I want to do the job well, because I know the purpose of the work, because I know what harm could be done if I do not do it well.

I am thankful to see that there is starting to be some pushback against the "do what you love" advice to young career seekers that began sometime in my own adolescence and has, more recently, attained the status of received wisdom from on high.  I agree that such talk is elitist.  It depends upon unseen millions doing other nastier work to support the dream-seekers among us. 

I do not envy anyone their dreams, I still have one or two myself, yet I will not countenance dismissal of those who've got jobs which are dirty and difficult either. Who loves getting up in the morning and going to work butchering and cutting chicken so the suburbs have an endless supply of flash frozen skinless chicken breasts?  If it meant coming to America, however, some might say it is the cost of doing what they love: giving their children opportunity or freedom.

When it is all said and done the advice we should give students and dream-seekers is "moderation in all things."  Gordon Marino hits the nail on the head when he writes,

The faith that my likes and dislikes or our sense of meaning alone should decide what I do is part and parcel with the gospel of self-fulfillment. Philosophy has always been right to instruct that we can be as mistaken about our views on happiness as anything else. The same holds for the related notion of self-fulfillment. Suppose that true self-fulfillment comes in the form of developing into “a mature human being.” This is of course not to claim that we ought to avoid work that we love doing just because we love doing it. That would be absurd. For some, a happy harmony exists or develops in which they find pleasure in using their talents in a responsible, other-oriented way.

Do what you love?  Yes, but maybe part-time, perhaps as a hobby.  You full-time job might be the price you pay in order to live your scheme of life.

If it is your full-time occupation, however, make sure it is of genuine benefit to your fellow man.