As a career advisor and passionate idealist (both literally and by personality temperament) I am a firm believer that you should "Do What You Love". Ask any student who has ever taken my class or come to me for career assessments and advising. It's my mantra! I am one of the lucky ones, I know, that gets to "do what I love and love what I do" every day. So, I can't help but wish that on everyone I come into contact with. But some may question whether or not that is appropriate advice to be giving in light of these tough economic times.
Yesterday, I read an article by Katherine Brooks called Can You Really "Do What You Love" These Days? published in Psychology Today. She discusses both sides of the "Do What You Love" coin. Some might consider this bad advice since we are living in an economic time where many people just want a job that puts food on the table and pays the bills and can't really even be concerned with "doing what they love". I still stand by my mantra - you should do what you love. Maybe you can't work at your "dream job" right now, but you should still determine the parts of your work that you do love and try to do more of those things. That will keep you more engaged and happy at work which contributes to success and well-being. With self-assessment and self-reflection you should be able to identify your interests, strengths and personality traits that align best with you current job or future job. Don't settle for less!
Find the joy in your work and focus on that. Do I love every aspect of my job? Nope! I hate my email right now and I don't enjoy collecting data or writing reports but I push through it so I can get to the stuff I do love - advising and developing students, making presentations, teaching classes and creating programs. Then after I do all of those things I get to work on other things I love - like this blog! Life is just too short to spend time in a job you hate, that drains you and doesn't provide you with any satisfaction or self-confidence. I won't give up on the dream and I hope you won't either.
I'm not suggesting that you should be naive or uniformed about the job market. I'm a big believer in planned happenstance. You have to be working towards something, all the while keeping your eyes open to the opportunities that land in your path. Just because you love something doesn't mean you can make a living doing it, there is going to be hard-work, creativity and planning to make that happen. But if it is what you love, you will find a way to incorporate that into your life in some way or else you just won't be satisfied.
What do you think? Is it too risky to do what you love these days?
