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Monday, July 16, 2012

The life you love becomes the job you hate



I love being outdoors. When I was young I thought the ideal job would be some sort of wilderness guide. Being paid to be out in the woods, what could be bad about that? The people you guide, that’s what. It was a bad enough when it was just clueless city people who complained constantly. A local guide had a client on a 7 day wilderness trip. Nice vacation, right? The client decided, without telling the guide, that it would also be a 7 day vacation from psych meds.

Electrical work is interesting. I’ve wired houses and installed solar electric systems. Would I want to do it every day? Nope, then it would get boring. I’m perfectly happy to drive out to a friend’s place to change a faulty charge controller before I’ve even had my morning coffee. Once in a while it’s interesting and fun. If I had to do this sort of thing every day it would bore the heck out of me.

That’s pretty much how I feel about carpentry, plumbing, auto repair and any other trades you can think of. I love it once in a while. Specializing would suck. Life should be interesting.

I was lucky enough when I was a firefighter that I never knew what the day would bring. It could anything from hanging around the station reading books to a major industrial fire in a chemical plant.

One guy I worked with taught me a valuable lesson. The first year on the job he got a bid driving the ladder truck. He liked it -for the next 27 years. Being an officer had a lot of paperwork and politics he despised so he refused all promotions. I felt the same way about driving the pumper, so that’s what I did for most of my career. When the officer test would come around, I’d take them to prove that I could do it, then refuse the job.

Did you ever hear about some management type person complain about how the job is no fun anymore? Darn few ever ask for a demotion. We are status driven people. They’d rather do a job they hate for higher status than a job they love for lower status.

Then there are those people who have a job because they have a job. It’s not their life but something they do for money. Glenn Cook writes Fantasy and S/F novels. For decades he wrote them while working a mindless job at an auto plant. There was a local musician who composed all this songs while working a factory job. He said his hands knew what to do, leaving his mind free to compose.

We all have to do something to put food on the table. Don’t make the mistake of turning some hobby you love into a job you hate. People who do that end up with both a crappy job and one less good hobby.

-Sixbears

14 comments:

  1. The funny part is the converse is true, too. I hate doing my own taxes, but I truly enjoy preparing returns for others.

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  2. Lot of truth there. I, too, loved being outdoors. BUT, it wasn't always fun having to make a living in the heat and the snow.

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    1. It makes a big difference when you don't have to go out in miserable weather.

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  3. As a Paramedic, having a job similar to yours, it's a great gig if you've got the stomach for the kind of adventure it can send you on. I'm actually editing a friend's book right now while at work, during downtime until some call comes in.

    As a Chef/Manager of a kitchen, I was tearing what little hair I had out. I like my job better now. However I do daydream about a job test riding motorcycles...

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    1. You do have a good gig. Your downtime is your own. The adventure is a bonus.

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  4. I loved what I did to make a living, since every new project was something different. Granted, there were a few very similar but most have been different. Some were a challange because most industries keep the easy stuff to do in-house and outsource the hard stuff. But that is the way I like it.

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  5. I carve walking sticks and canes. I give them to friends. People keep telling me, "You should sell them!!!" But, then it would be a job and take the fun out of it. The look on someone's face when I hand them a stick is priceless to me.

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    1. Wise of you to keep the fun in it. You are in the gift economy and it feels pretty good, right?

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  6. Often there is a big difference in "want to and have to!"

    You are so right about it being a mistake in turning a hobby into a business! Takes all the fun out of it!

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  7. I may have to disagree today.I started doing BBQ as a fun hobby 10 years ago .For the last 2 its been my sole income i still love it .Something about the smile after the first bite on a costumers face never gets old.IT mabe because i love having smiling costumers for a change.

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  8. Congratulations! You are one of the few who've made it work. I'm glad it worked out for you. Making people happy makes you happy.

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