Doing What You Love

"Do what you love and the money will follow." Have you ever heard this piece of wisdom? It's a phrase that I hear often in the personal growth world where I spend so much of my time. When I first heard this phrase, I was excited - I could do what I love to do and make money too?! Fabulous! I had wanted to change jobs and this idea fit in nicely with my desire for change. I adopted the plan and set about doing more yoga, bike riding and reading in the backyard. My bank account didn't seem to be increasing nor was anyone offering me a new job...but I persisted, thinking that these "experts" must know what they are talking about - it looked like they were making money, doing what they love so it should work for me, too.
"Find your passion, pursue your dreams, follow your bliss....bite me!" To say I was getting frustrated was an understatement! I had been looking and looking for anyone or any company that would be willing to pay me for doing what I loved but I continued to come up empty. My frustration made me examine the phrase more closely and I came to an interesting awareness.
Do what you love and the money will follow are actually two phrases that aren't always connected. Doing what you love doesn't necessarily mean the work that you do for money, it simply means spend time doing things that you love to do, that uplift you, which use your strengths, that bring you joy and fulfillment. Doing what you love gives you energy, creates more focus and brings you more joy. The more energy, focus and joy you have in your life, the easier it is for you to do your work. When you do your work, you make money.
Expecting your work to be the sole provider of your joy, passion, fulfillment and money puts WAY too much pressure on you to find the "right" work. Instead, look for the essence of what you love to do and see if you can bring that to your work or look for work that offers some of the essence of what you love to do.
Sometimes your work will be something that you love to do and sometimes your work may be the means for you to do the other things that you love to do. The important thing to remember is to do what you love because it is from doing what you love that all good things will follow!