What you do

Loving what I do has been a theme throughout my life. Perhaps because I am a little self-centered, or lazy, or stubborn, I have never been able to sustain doing things I don't care about.

It has served me well in the long run.

I love learning new things and I love music, so musical instruments figured heavily into most of my life. I took lessons on piano, saxophone, violin, oboe and flute. I also dabbled in the dulcimer. I am not a master on any of these instruments but the piano has been one of  my major turn-tos for survival. When I am sad, bored, depressed, or so joyful I need to express myself, I play the piano, or keyboard. But . . . teaching, or playing as part of a group like an orchestra, or band does not really grab me.

I did love teaching three year old preschoolers though! It was an occupation I stumbled into through a close friend and not once, in all the years I did it, did I not love what I did. And I did love being a most-of-the-time at home mom for my three children, so I can say with great experience:

Do what you love.

When you pick your life's work, pick something you are passionate about, something you truly care about. Something you would do if you didn't even get paid. It will make your life immensely better.

Some people pick a job because it is the best paying one they can get and I say great as long as money is the thing you love the most. If you are like the king in his counting house counting out the money and that satisfies something in you -- you are in the right place.

I know we need to make ends meet, but in the long run I have to love those ends an awful lot to be miserable doing it. I also know not everyone gets to have the choices I have had, but don't give up trying.

There is time and a place for nearly everything. Even quitting. I have quit several good paying jobs like working for a major company to move to places like a small flower shop where the personal benefits far outweighed the cut I took in salary. I also recently quit volunteering in a school library after doing so in one form or another for nearly forty years, but the joy and satisfaction I got from that stopped.

Only you know what adds quality to your life. Allow yourself the imagination, time and willingness, to find it.