I Love My Work, But I Don’t Love It All

I often talk about the importance of loving your work. But it does not mean you love every single bit of it, and you don’t have to in order to be happy doing it.

• Probably 10 to 20 percent of it is stuff you just look forward to doing, and that is the part that gets you up in the morning excited to go to work.
• Another 60 to 80 percentage is just stuff. Ok, part of your competency, part of the day, and tasks that are neither exciting, nor dreadful. Just there.
• The remaining 10 to 20 percent is stuff you dread, and do not want to have to do. You do it, because the part that you love makes it worth it to do the part you don’t love. Of course, this is the part we hire out to others as soon as we can!

I think that this concept is one that is misunderstood in many directions. Some people don’t realize the importance of finding a business that fills the hidden corners of their heart. But others get confused and think it all has to be fun and exciting. Either extreme is untrue.

Often, what makes me love what I do isn’t even the tasks themselves. It is what we accomplish. It has meaning, and it is worth doing. That is what makes the exciting parts that way, and it keeps me going when I have to face tasks that I dislike.

If I had the money to stop working tomorrow, I would not. I’d keep it up. I’d probably hire out some of the less interesting things, and many of the things I dislike doing, but I’d keep at it, because I truly love what I do.

When you find something you can feel that way about, you got the right thing.