Kyle’s article got me thinking about something I want to say. I’ve heard a lot of great messages encouraging and prompting people to stop working at jobs they hate and follow their passions. I’m loving the amount of positive energy and the camaraderie these sorts of messages are creating. People that show up to their jobs to clock in like somber faced drones, hate their work, and clock out are now getting the much needed confidence boost to pursue their passions and create an existence and life that they love. Hopefully this produces people that are pleasant to be around and contribute many more positive energy into a world filled with negativity. This message has been a good one and is really helping people to pursue what makes them fly, but it’s not the only message that needs to be heard.

I’ve got a totally different take on this one, and it doesn’t negate what has been said by Kyle and Gary Vee, but offers another perspective on it. What I hear in their message is this:

If you don’t love your job, stop moaning about it and get out there and make efforts to be doing the thing you love. However, don’t just be stupid and jump…but find what you love and take the calculated risk to do so, not allowing life’s stupid distractions to get in your way (like xbox, gaming, tv, movies, free-range chicken herding, whatever).

…and I agree. Pursue, find and do that thing you love!

Locational Happiness

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people talk about locational unhappiness. Let me explain. Fred’s got a dead end job, but he always talks about how as soon as he get’s that next big job as a freelance designer, he’ll be happy. Horace and Mabel are having marriage problems, but instead of addressing the real issue, they constantly cling on to the hope of their vacation, or how everything is going to be better once they leave this dusty little town. Once they move back to Texas or New York, or Italy or wherever, there, they finally will be happy.

I’ve seen this all the time with not just locational moves but in acquiring things. Jen and Nathan are having serious marital problems, but instead of facing the issue and talking about it, however painful that may be, they buy a puppy…later some four-wheelers, later gym memberships and dance lessons. It seems to always be about covering up the pain or the problem with a bit more happiness from some other source, be it a move to a new town or a new pet.

My wife and I have talked about leaving Montana for years now. I actually thought at one point that if I moved to San Diego, life would be better, right? Wrong. We’ve found joy here and that’s because joy didn’t exist in a job title or a location. Joy doesn’t exist just a day away, tomorrow, when you finally get that job, when you move. Joy can be here now. You can thrive now.

It’s in YOU

Unhappiness is part of a problem in you. If you aren’t happy at your current job, it’s not necessarily because you aren’t doing the thing you are meant to do, or at least that’s how I see it. It’s indicative of a much bigger thing that merely slapping on a new career won’t change. Do you want to be the sort of person that can find joy in whatever you are doing? If you are helping an old woman across the street, working in a soup line, or having a beer with the buddies, are you just as joyful?

I’ve worked some crazy jobs. I’ve worked in dish pits, scrubbing dishes til 2am. I’ve worked as a Taxidermist’s apprentice, shaving rotting flesh off of old animal hides in a small back room. I’ve worked two feet away from people on a small desk, with an old, busted up computer, running windows. I’ve delivered pizzas and hauled rocks. I loved it all and was so joyful doing it — ask anybody. You have no idea the amount of fun you can have with a coworker washing dishes or in a lineup of 4 people making pizzas. I honestly feel alive when I am serving others, even to the point where I have given up design work at times to wait tables, because I love serving people. But, I loved shaving old deer hides too.

Don’t wait. Embrace Joy Now.

The answer is not in adding to your life. It’s in contentment and possessing the joy within you for any moment, any thing. Sure, there are things in this life that I believe people are truly more passionate about and when they are doing that thing, their joy will skyrocket — and do pursue that, but I just want to say to you, yes you. Don’t wait and postpone your joy. Your joy is now, wherever you are at. Be the kind of person that thrives in any situation.

That is the kind of happiness that will make this world a better place.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Epiphanies, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.