Liking What You Do

I recently received updates via email from TLG over in UK. Updates which included matters of the heart and his career. With respect to the latter, he mentioned taking a course in acupuncture, having been quite into orthopaedic ops, and having done or helped in 1 external fixator and 1 plating of broken legs, whatever that is. In case you're wondering, TLG's a vet. And more importantly, he's enjoying it.

How many of us can actually proclaim to like our jobs, enjoy what we're doing, and look forward to going to work every single day?

My guess is that, to most of us, the job is simply a means of making a living.

But I'm sure many of us have a dream job, or rather something that we know or think we'd enjoy doing. Like setting up a bakery, teaching, painting, acting, dog-walking, baby-sitting, and the list goes on. One of the factors that holds us back from actually taking that step and pursuing it is its feasibility in terms of the financial returns. That thing that we (think) we might enjoy doing somehow will not pay as much.

I was discussing this with a friend and his reply (via sms) went like this: U get paid to get more shit, fact of life. U have to decide. My take is there's always shit everywhere so might as well go for more $ cos once u get used to the shit, it's not so bad or much. :)

Very practical. The typical 'there's-always-a-trade-off' theory.

Of course, there will be the handful who decide to just 'heck-the-money-and-do-what-i-like'. Kudos to you. For me, for now at least, I'll start trying to get used to the shit. As the chinese saying goes, "Xi guan chen zi ran" (Once you get used to it, it becomes a norm).

Or maybe what I think I might enjoy doing may not be that enjoyable once I eventually embark on it. Like how they say the grass is always greener on the other side.