An obnoxious piece of advice.
It’s a piece of advice we hear from people around us once in a while.
The importance of doing what we like rather than what we feel obligated to do.
It’s always easy to say it to the person who is not in your shoes.
You have your problems, internal or external. You can’t just stop doing what you don’t like and only do what you like.
This piece of advice becomes obnoxious: “Why do they tell me this?”.
It just makes it worse.
The strategic view versus the operational one
That is the difference between the strategic and the operational views.
You’d like to be an airline pilot but you are just a simple student who cannot afford the studies.
You want to become a full-time blogger but you’re stuck in a low pay job that sucks all the hours of your day.
The day-to-day makes it difficult to take some distance. And you can’t just disrupt your current situation. You may have a mortgage to pay, or children to raise.
Its a matter of timescale
However, you should not discard the strategic view altogether.
Your friend who is wishing you well was not completely wrong. You should do what you love.
But he should have phrased it differently: “You should think about what you want to achieve in the long run, and find a set of practical steps to reach your goal”.
Your friend did not imply that you should quit your job. He merely implied that you should steer towards your passion and curiosity.
Back to implementing baby steps
Maybe you’re a single person able to dedicate 5 hours a day in addition to your daily routine. Maybe you’re a parent able to dedicate 30 minutes.
No matter how much time you can dedicate to your passion, the effect will be massive by doing it slowly but continuously.
You’ll find new motivation in your current job
Doing what you love on the side will make you pleasant to your surrounding and you’ll be enjoying your current job. You’ll feel that this is not the only thing you do.
You understand that you do have control over your destiny
By implementing baby steps, you’ll realize that what you thought was impossible is actually doable.
By getting started on your project you’ll find hidden hours
By actually starting with little time, you’ll suddenly find magically additional hours to dedicate to your passion.
And the more time you spend, the more hours you’ll find.
So, I hope this post will provide you with hope and determination not to give up on your dreams. We only have one life and we can’t be regretting not doing what we wanted in the first place because of poor excuses.