Summary

The article argues that the adage "Do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life" is misleading, as passion-driven work is still challenging and often fraught with stress, anxiety, and hardship.

Abstract

The author of the article challenges the popular notion that pursuing one's passion leads to a life without labor. While acknowledging the importance of loving one's work, the author emphasizes that such endeavors are not devoid of the difficulties typically associated with work. The process of creating and sharing work with the world can be emotionally taxing, as it involves vulnerability to criticism and the pressure of high personal standards. The article highlights the perfectionism and self-criticism that often accompany passionate work, leading to long hours, sacrifices, and the possibility of discarding projects that don't meet one's vision. Despite these challenges, the author asserts that the love for the work fuels perseverance and growth, suggesting that the true value of pursuing one's passion lies in overcoming the inherent difficulties and uncertainties.

Opinions

The author believes that passion does not exempt one from experiencing work-related stress and anxiety.
Putting one's work out for public scrutiny is intimidating, yet essential for personal expression and growth.
The fear of indifference or negative reception is a significant emotional stressor in creative work.
Perfectionism and setting high standards for oneself are common when doing work one is passionate about.
The process of creation often involves a cycle of success and failure, with the possibility of abandoning projects that do not meet expectations.
The author asserts that the challenges and sacrifices involved in pursuing one's passion are what make the endeavor meaningful and prove one's love for the work.
The article suggests that if passionate work were effortless, it would be less valuable and meaningful, as its difficulty is a testament to its significance.

That Saying “Do What You Love and You’ll Never Work Another Day in Your Life” is Bullshit. Here’s Why.

So, you’ve probably heard this super popular saying at least once:

“Love what you do and you’ll never work another day in your life.”

The saying implies that you’re making, or attempting to make, a living off whatever it is you love to do; which is something we should all certainly strive for. After all, if you’re doing whatever it is that you love the most, the thing that you’re most passionate about all day every day, and you’re managing to live off that, then it stands to reason that you’ll never experience another day full of stress, anxiety, or hardship. Right?

The answer is Hell-to-the-no. The things I’m passionate about often end up making me want to bang my head against a wall at least twice a day.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t love doing them, of course I do It just means I would be straight up lying to you if I said it never felt like work and didn’t give me some level of stress, anxiety, or hardship.

I consider myself to be a fairly outgoing and confident person. I tend not to mind what other people think of me, and I like criticism; because it helps to make me (and my work) better.

That being said, it’s still intimidating to put something, anything, out there for the entire world to potentially see, knowing that they could shamelessly love it or mercilessly hate it. Or, worse yet, be completely indifferent towards it.

But I, and countless others, choose to do it anyway… because the consequences of not doing it at all severely outweigh the potential consequences of doing it and failing. I think “this is who I am, this is what I think I’m good at” and so I choose to express that, because what would life be if I didn’t? I can’t imagine that I’m the only one who feels this way.

And that’s just the emotional stress of it.

Most of us can’t help but to be our own worst critic. It’s hard not to be a perfectionist when it comes to any type of work that you’re passionate about because, obviously, you want whatever it is you’re working on to be the absolute best it can be. You want your work to be well liked, admired, and well received; but more than any of those things, you want to be able to step back, look at what you’ve done, and be proud of it. You want to admire your own work the same way you admire the work of those that inspire you, which often leads to setting damn near impossible standards for yourself.

So hours are spent pouring over ideas and concepts, working and re-working, changing and unchanging. We spend so much of our time on our work, sacrificing food and sleep, just to make whatever it is we’re working on the best it can be. But even after all of that, we may end up discarding the project altogether because we know it isn’t what we saw in our mind’s eye. And so, it goes in the drawer, or in the trashcan, or in the box, never to be seen by anybody but ourselves.

And when that happens, it can be soul crushing. It makes us feel like we should give up altogether, that nothing that we’ve made prior is good enough and that nothing we’ll make in the future will be good enough either.

But that feeling be damned, we persevere and we keep working anyway

So, we continue to push ourselves. We continue to succeed and fail and succeed and fail repeatedly, getting better and better each and every time we do, because we love doing it. We love thinking about what it can become, and we love chasing and realizing the goals we’ve set for ourselves.

So, if you’re attempting to pursue something, anything at all, that you claim to love, don’t expect to love every second of it, because there’s an inherent sacrifice that comes with not only attempting it, but wanting to be great at it.

And it SHOULD be that way. It should be demanding, and it should be challenging. Because that proves, that if you succeed, you really did love it. You poured your entire being into it, you gave yourself to it, and you made it a reality. Not because it was easy, not because it was simple, but because it was hard, but you decided you didn’t care that it was hard, and that your love for it outweighed the difficulty and uncertainty of it.

In this way, you prove to yourself that you could do something that not everybody else can do; because if it was that simple, if it really did make you feel like you were never working another day in your life, then everybody would do it.. and that would kill its meaning.