Would you keep doing what your doing. Think about it, hypothetically. If you no longer needed to worry about making an income, what would you spend the rest of your life doing? What productive thing do you like doing? What is that one thing you would pay to do? Eat at the finest restaurants, go on week long hikes? Go horse riding? Document back stage at fashion week? What would you like to do so much you’d pay someone else to be able to experience it for yourself.
I’ll give you an example. My friend loves coffee, he drinks it everyday. He loves the taste, the history behind it, the perfection of a good bean, and how it’s roasted. He loves coffee so much he’s a full time barista. He’s been making coffee for many years. He loves the craft so much he even volunteers for website reviews, judging, helping out other cafes and even teaching. The list goes on for what he does for free, just because he loves it. I’m not going to tell you what he’s income is, but I will say it’s far beyond what I make in a year. This comes down to his devotion for the craft. He found something he loves so much he would of payed for it, and has worked for free because he’s so passionate about it. Over time he’s made a very successful career from his passion. If you can find a passion like this for yourself, you will be successful in my eyes.
Another way to look at this question is to ask yourself, would you want someone else to be successful if you weren’t. What I mean by this is do you believe in your idea so passionately, that no matter who does it, you would want them to succeed. For that idea to be in the world for everyone to enjoy. Like Uber taxi services, food meal deliveries, what ever it might be. I love photography so much I wish there was more one on one courses. I’ve seen online tutorials, but I’ve never seen one on one courses online outside of university. I love the idea so much I’d pay for it. I love the idea so much I’d do it for free myself. I love that idea so much, I’d love to see someone else achieve greatness from it.
You could question it like this, What would you spend your time doing. If you retired, how would you spend your days? What would you do after all the TV, books and sleeping in? After you got over all the luxury. When you get bored what do you do with your time to occupy yourself. I know I’d go for long walks and take photos, I’d do that every day no question. What’s your go to vice that something you do that brings you joy that’s not consuming that’s productive? I call that something, a hobby, your passion.
Could you truly do this for the rest of your life regardless of income. I love movies, I used to watch them all the time. They brought me joy and entertainment. I always loved talking about them, giving people advice on what to watch. I was passionate about movies. But after watching any more than one a day, I felt like I’d waisted my day. I love movies, but I couldn’t sit there for the rest of my life and just watch them. Find that one thing you can’t OD on. No matter how much you do it, no matter how much time you spend trying to perfect it, you never get tired, bored, or fead up. This sadly can take a lot of time to find, as you have to try many things for a while till you know your bored of it. But if you keep trying things and then not liking them over time. Think to yourself, your just one step closer to finding that thing you love, because you’ve eliminated something off your list.
Ask yourself the question, do you like the not so glamours parts of it. I love photography, my day job is working in a studio taking photos for catalogues, advertisements, campaigns, website content, mailers, the list goes on. Some of the things I photograph are pretty dull, boring for someone to hear about. An example is I once spent an entire day shooting shoes for an online shop. I’ve done a whole week of shooting birds eye view photos of shoes. And you know what, I like it. Because I get to light them, take a photo and edit them, put down the barcode number of the image captured and write it down in a spread sheet for invoice. Not glamours, not a story you tell at a party. But I like it, I never get over it, it’s my bread and butter work. The kinda work that keeps the lights on and a roof over my head. Find that one crap thing no one else wants to do, and for some strange reason it brings you happiness, then your set.
Do you like the struggles and challenges. Have you ever had a day where everything goes wrong. I mean everything, you want to pull your hair out and quit. If you have felt that, then your job isn’t what you want to be doing. You need something where a problem isn’t a bad thing that sets you back. You want to see a problem as a challenge, something new, different a learning curve. I have days where nothing goes right. Instead of putting my head between my knees, I jump at a problem. In solving an issue, I learn something. And when or if it happens again I can fix it straight a way. Or even find what courses the issue in the first place and fix it at the source. Find a job or hobby where you embrace challenges.
Think of it like this, would you keep doing it if no one was watching. If you spent your whole life finding the cure for cancer. And then one day you solved it, you found the cure. But on the other side of the world someone else found it a week before you did, would you say you waisted your life? No one gave you credit for your work, no recognition for what you did. Someone else stole your lime light. Knowing that before you even started, would you still do it? For me, if I took photos for the rest of my life and no one cared. I’d still do it. Since I changed my style, or should I say found my style. Every post I’ve down has gone down in views and likes. Let’s say out of 100 likes that I used to get, now I only get 20. And it doesn’t matter, because I love what I’m doing. No one is watching, hell less people are watching, less and less but I keep doing it because I love it. It’s my passion.
If you where on your death bed right now, what would you wish you would of done. This is just another way to ask the same question from the start of this post. And if your list is long, do everything on that list now. Because for all you know the next day could be your last. So live life now, instead of pondering and planing to do it in the so called future and forget about the cost or how much money you need, just do it before its to late.