The modern social rule of thumb is that we're supposed to be passionate about what we do for a living. Gone are the good old days when Charles and Caroline Ingalls tended their farm on the prairies to feed their family and help em become positive, contributing members of society. In the modern world, having a career is good, but the modern ideal is to have a career that you're passionate about. Now I can't argue with that - it's as good a rule as any for a motivated person to live by. The problem that arises is - what if you are motivated, but not passionate about anything?
Now, by "not passionate about anything" - I don't mean the unmentionables. Most of us are not that interested in converting our late night horizontal exertions into a career. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm not talking about you.
I'm also excluding spouses and kids. Hopefully you're passionate about your spouse, but pimping out your better half is a poor career choice. And you SHOULD be passionate about your kids - but regrettably, unless you're the parents of the Gary Coleman types, you can't really make a career out of that either. Not that they were exactly stellar examples of parental love, considering how that all turned out. Note: if you don't know who Gary Coleman is, 1. You've just made me feel really old, and 2. Watch some episodes of "Different Strokes" - it's an interesting view of the 80s.
No, gentle reader, by passion I'm referring to a career choice that stays within the guidelines of socially acceptable norms. Take myself, for example. I've worked in financial services for over 15 years. I've had some fun roles, but I'd hardly say I'm passionate about the industry. I hardly think I'm alone in this - in fact, show me someone who says they are passionate about banking and 99% of the time I'll show you a good spin doctor.
So what's the point of this spiel? Well, it's just this; I believe everyone should have a passion. Something to live for. In a perfect world, we are able to live our passion through our career. But the reality is that most of us are not fortunate enough to make our passion our career. In these cases, its enough that work is fun and rewarding. And when the work day ends, you have your passion to look forward to.
