Work, Rest and Play

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” -Confucius.

Sometimes, the jobs that we love, the things that we love to do, can be more work for us than anything else. This is because, as with all things that are worthwhile, they require a great deal of effort. This is why so few seem to go as far as they would like in life: they give up. Sure, it might not be a conscious decision to give up, but the more complicated, the more worthwhile a goal becomes, the more effort is needed to achieve it. As things get harder, as things become more complicated and goals more worthwhile, more and more people find themselves getting tired with the increasing demands and they relent, they give up. Thus, so few people get as far as they might have wished to.

The answer? Conscious perseverance! An individual must continue to try, must continue to focus, even though it might not always seem as if you can make it to the end. If you do not try, then you can never succeed. The struggle of an artist, any kind of art, be they visual arts, music or literature (or anything else for that matter) is that they produce something in almost complete solitude, putting all the effort they can into it and only once it is finished will they discover whether or not it was worthwhile. It might all be for nothing, but the risk must be made, for if it is not, one can never succeed.

I simply wish to say that you have to do something, and you have to keep going with what you love, even when it is the last thing you want to do, for if it is truly what you love to do, you will always be able to rediscover why you love it. People should experiment, try many different things to find what they love the most. Everybody has a passion, even those who swear blind that they do not, it is only a matter of uncovering it.

There is a prevailing though within modern western culture that effort is a bad thing, that having to do, having to work is something that should be avoided. This is not the case! We should judge the work by its results and its effects, what it actually brings to the worker and to others. If a worker does not love his work, then they should not do it unless it is necessary (for example, for financial support). Work as you have to, for as long as you have to, but when the chance to do something that you love comes along, leap at it!

Do not waste this life doing something that you do not have to do and do not want to do. The years are limited. Do not waste them. Find what you love, go for it and do not look back.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela