Got a question for y’all this morning.
Thought I’d ask it via video to mix things up.
So what are your thoughts on this issue?
Is the notion of doing what you love for a living a pipe dream that only the rare few should strive to obtain?
Or is it where most of us should be, finding a way to do something we love while providing for our loved ones?
I’m not looking for right answers, I really want to know how YOU personally feel about this issue.
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Great question.
I don’t think we have the “right” to make money at what we love. It’s just that we’re at a unique place in history where most of us *can* do that in our culture today (I’m basically drinking the Gary Vaynerchuk kool-aid on this).
But you have to work hard, and maybe you wouldn’t make as much as an engineer in the pharm industry (!). So there could be a tradeoff there.
The question is, what are you willing to do (and maybe give up) to have your passion be your full-time vocation? Only you can answer that.
I’m with you on the Gary V Kool-aid train. I do believe that there are more opportunities than ever before, mostly thanks to al gore and the internet.
did you read Crush It? I finished it last week. Good stuff.
I did indeed.
If you can pursue your work passion full-time, then do that.
If you have responsibilities to a wife and children, then fulfill those. If you can do that with your passion, then why not?
But regardless of how you make your money, as my uncle once said, you have to have at least a little passion in your life.
I’ve recently discovered that my greatest passion, above all else, is my wife. I’m fortunate to make my living thus far as a freelance writer. Maybe I won’t be able to all my life. But it works for now, and I consider myself blessed for that.
We should pursue our passions. This is why we need to be careful who we marry. Our spouses define our lives. We should marry someone we’ll remain passionate about.
That said, my wife understands my love for writing and desire to make it as a writer. She’s passionate about me, too. It works best going both ways.
Finally, I’ve also come to realize that passion is something that determines everything. And it doesn’t always feel like passion.
Anyway, that’s how I feel.
I guess where I’m at right now priority trumps passion. My #1 priority, for better or worse, is providing for my family. And right now the best course of action for me to do that is by continuing to do a good job as a Quality Engineer.
My #2 priority is probably being creative and making people laugh, and if that was #1 then I would probably quit my job to do that full time and make a go at it. But right now I’m not there.
BUT, i want to get to a place where I can achieve #1 by doing the things I’m passionate about. It will take work, and more work, and some risks, but that’s where I want to go.
I think if we base are identity on our vocation then we will only be satisfied with when we get our ‘dream’ job
But if we base our identity on who we are in christ we can be satisfied doing any job, knowing were providing for our family.
Paul saw himself as an apostle of Christ and made tents to fule that. Thats not to say he did it begrudgingly, more so that his vocation let him do his ministry. Also scripture says possible to do any job for the glory of God…apart from a pimp maybe…
I do regularly feel challenged in this area, as i am a Graphic Designer and i was going to work in London but i felt God calling me to a town with considerably less opportunities so i got a job designing hotel adverts.
What i Keep coming back to is calling and identity.
at this point i certainly don’t place my identity in my job, but i can see the pitfalls in doing that.
at the same time, I think we all need to realize the unique talents and gifts that God has given to each of us, and we need to pursue how we can use them to do amazing things.
Is the notion of doing what you love for a living a pipe dream that only the rare few should strive to obtain?
-I don’t think it’s a pipe dream, but I do think that most people these days cannot do what they are passionate about full time and maintain the same life style, at least not at first
Or is it where most of us should be, finding a way to do something we love while providing for our loved ones?
-I think most people should be doing the thing they are passionate about, maybe not necessarily as a vocation at first; however, I have an unproven belief that if someone starts doing the stuff they’re passionate about (instead of just talking about it) opportunities to make money doing that thing will present themselves.
you make a good point about maintaining a lifestyle. Erica and I don’t live extravagantly at all, but taking a big pay cut would certainly mean making lifestyle changes.
as for your second point, here’s to hoping you’re right!
I’ve been there.
For me, it’s about contentment. Is it possible for me to be content where I’m at? Is it enough?
I’m driven to excel, achieve, hunt down and master whatever I fancy — getting whatever I want. I’m watching and comparing myself to others all along the way.
Truth is, I’m not everyone else. Maybe I’m supposed to lead a quiet life and work with my hands.
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it’s growing on a big pile of crap.
It’s good for me to stop listening to butt-kissers that tell me I’m *all that*. I know what the real issues are.
“contentment” is definitely a word i struggle with.
am i content? yes. I am provided for above and beyond by an amazing God. Do I work in a good environment? For the most part, yes. Do I get to do things I enjoy on the side? absolutely. So in that sense I am content.
But then sometimes I don’t want to settle for contentment with how I make a living. It’s one thing to be content with the circumstances in your life that you cant control. But if I can control how I make money (to some extent), then why not try to do it with passion and joy?
Follow your pipe dreams.
Oh, and spend some serious time/energy figuring out how to make money doing it.
my pipe dream is for you and tripp to get a sitcom deal and for me to be hired to write for your show.
oh, and the show will be called “Ladies and Gentlemen, Neil Calfman”
You don’t know me, but I would like to apply for an internship at your new show.
Resume: My dad was a boxer and I went blind and he died and now I’m grown up and I fight people with my senses and a stick/rope thing and my girlfriend in named Elektra.
First suggestion: Let him be “Sir” Neil Calfman.
I don’t think you have to make a living at your passion…but it sure would be nice!
The thing is, most people don’t count the cost of what it takes to turn a passion into a self-sustaining enterprise. If you can’t throw yourself into it and be willing to make lots of sacrifices for years to come, then I’d say don’t bother.
You should check out “Believe: the Eddie Izzard Story,” a documentary on the career of the now very successful comedian. It does a good job of showing the suffering he went through for years, but also how his persistence finally paid off.
For most of us, we probably need to find a way to pursue our passion without “giving up the day job,” and there usually are ways. This blog is a good example. For me, it’s recently been storytelling. I got the opportunity this week finally to compete in a local story slam, and I had a blast. I don’t have any pretensions that I’ll be the next David Sedaris, but I now have the confidence that I’m good enough at it to keep at it, and that I can do these evening events as well as writing on my blog while “keeping the day job.”
good luck with that Mark, it sounds like a great start!
And i think you’re right on about the sacrifices required to make it work.
Thanks, Bryan.
If you don’t mind me doing a little schilling on your blog…
…if anyone would like to see my comic story, it’s at http://foolishsage.com/2010/06/23/video-somewhere-my-love-anywhere-but-here-my-story-from-the-monti-story-slam/
It’s a tale of epic adolescent embarrassment involving The Most Terrifying Movie Ever Made.
To quote Ayn Rand, “The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrifice.”
I don’t perform comedy for the benefit of others. I do it solely for my own interest. It just so happens that others find value in it – but that doesn’t drive my creation one bit.
Humanity is inherently & biologically geared to act in their own individual self-interest. It just so happens that the combined self-interest of individuals produces vast benefits for all in society.
By denying your instinctual predication towards creating art in the fallacy of “self-sacrifice” and the supposed benefit of others, you’re not only depriving yourself, but everyone you know and love, as well as all humankind.
*Brian, I wrote this comment, not to benefit you or any readers of this post, but solely to satisfy my own needs. My need to create art. Inspiring others through words *IS* art. As long as I feel as if I’m making an impact, then my purpose inside is filled. Whether or not you actually get benefit from this comment… none of my concern.
Jordan, i agree that we’re all geared to act toward our own self-interest, but I dont think we HAVE to always do it…and I don’t think we should always do it.
For instance, I really DO care about my wife and kids, and quitting my job today to create more art might deprive humankind of something (though that’s debatable), but it would also deprive them of money to buy food and pay my mortgage.
thanks for providing a different perspective – and i’m not just saying that to satisfy myself
This is something I try not to think about. I go to work and am bored out of my mind when I get there. I work on my projects, but I don’t feel like I’m being stimulated or challenged, and often I feel like I’m in a quagmire of confusion.
I’d love to do other things, like write or create music, and get paid for them, but I’m not ballsy enough to give up my good-paying job for a less-than-likely chance at success.
So instead I find myself pursuing my passions outside of work, in my occasional spare time. Such is life.
Excellent question.
Keeping the Gospel in view, I think any time we speak of things that are “rights,” we’re treading on dangerous ground. Oswald Chambers said that the only right a Christian has is to give up his rights.
That being said, God has gifted us in areas for certain reasons within His sovereignty, and we should exercise those gifts to the fullest of our potential. Someone used the example of Paul being a tentmaker above — I think it is apt here. His passion was obviously to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles, but he made tents to pay the bills, to fuel his passion. In the end, he is remembered for his Gospel focus rather than his excellent tents (but I am certain that he made excellent tents).
One of the most misused Scriptures in the Bible is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things….” It’s in a passage about contentment with circumstances, not about winning a football game or weightlifting or performing other feats of strength. So the fact that you don’t like your job sometimes isn’t a surprise to God. Paul didn’t like his job, either.
He also didn’t like jail or beatings, but that’s another topic.
The thing about being content with my circumstances is that God didn’t just drop me into this current place and say “Here, learn to enjoy this.”
Inasmuch as I have the option to leave this line of work to do something else now, I had the option all through my life to go into any number of fields. Do I believe that God has led and guided me in my life to some degree? Absolutely. But I have never felt that He was leading me into the Pharma field and once I got here He said, “you made it! Now enjoy it while I go help others find their career”.
That’s why i think the “contentment” card is tricky. Had I played it after high school and said, “Why should I go to college and go into debt? I’m content where God has me in life and a job managing a Dunkin Donuts is good enough”, very few would have been okay with that.
But once I’m an adult and have a career it seems like some people (and i’m not accusing you of this Kelly) think, “ok, you picked your path, now be content and learn to live with it”. and that’s the thought that bothers me.
Right, but the other extreme is also wrong…”I’m not happy doing what I’m doing, so God must want me elsewhere.” Scripture is pretty clear that we have to strive for contentment — it doesn’t come easily.
Totally agree Kelly, and I think the tough thing for me is, What is contentment? Does contentment define an attitude or a set of behaviors? or both?
If you go around pretending you like your job or your field of work when you don’t, is that being content?
If you go around saying “I dont really like my job at all, but God provides through it and He is good so I am content”, is that being content?
seems like a tough thing to define…or maybe I’m complicating it.
This is a really great question – one that my husband and I talk about all the time.
The contentment issue is an interesting topic because I think often times that is thrown out there and it really just keeps people from making bold steps. Which, in my humble opinion, is necessary if you are going to change your life setup. Yes baby steps can get you there, but at some point the leaps have to happen.
I think the whole concept of what “providing for the family” looks like needs to be talked about along side of this question.
Great, great question. I have been wrestling with this since college. That’s a decade of wrestling, and I’m tired!
One thing I have truly learned (as opposed to the things that God is teaching me, but I haven’t wrapped my brain around it) is that there is a huge plus to providing for your family.
See, my husband is really smart and I spent the first few years of our marriage trying to push him through college. But it wasn’t for him. I would get so frustrated and disappointed. After all, God made him smart and gave him gifts. Wasn’t is wrong for him to waste all that by driving a truck?
Well, it turns out (and this is probably WAY obvious to everyone else) that I was being ridiculous. First of all, determining God’s will for SOMEONE ELSE – even my husband – is never a good idea. And second of all, it appears that God knew exactly what He was doing when he gave Mark the desire to drive a truck and not sit at a desk all day.
Because right now, my husband is driving a truck and making enough money to support our family – so I can figure out if and where my passion and career meet.
I’m an engineer as well, sitting in a cube or out on the factory floor isn’t my passion all the time, but there are good, even great, parts about my job. I’m working on developing my own thing on the side, which I am more passionate about, and hope to do that full-time some day.
I guess I see life in stages, we probably can’t do what we love all the time, but we can make what we do better and work toward being better in the future. I used to wash dishes and had 3 jobs to make a living for my family. I think I appreciate what I have more because of where I’ve been, and the journey toward my “passion” is key to who I am. So I choose to see the great stuff about where I am, and keep working on developing my “passion” today and for the future.
Tough one. I think God wants to give us our desires. But we need to be wise stewards. If you keep working on your passion on the side and get it to the point where it could support the basic needs of your family, then by all means do your passion as a vocation.
But if that is not the case, stick with the really good job God has provided you. To sink your family into poverty so that you can chase a dream will NEVER make you happy. Pursuing your passion as a career is not something many can sucessfully do. But sinking your life chasing a dream is something that people do every day.
But above all that, you need to follow where God leads you.
I feel I’m at an impasse with this sort of question right now in my life.
My job is something I once had more passion for, but it’s steadily grown more demanding for fewer tangible and intangible reward (hint: it’s at a newspaper). It’s something I’ve been trying to get out of for the past few years, but have found no success, so I have to keep going. Better than having no job at all, right? That’s the go-to answer everyone has.
But on the other side, I don’t have a family or anything I need to support, so there’s little indirect passion to work, either. It seems that I work just so I can keep myself afloat enough that I can go back to work the next day. It can feel very empty and lonely sometimes. Very much a rut.
So I guess what I’m saying is that it’s definitely important to have a substantial amount of passion either in what you do or who you’re doing it for. If you can have both, that’s great! If you don’t have either, though, and you’re stuck, I’d appreciate any tips on what could be done about that.
I think you have to look at your (this is a plural your, as in the whole families) priorities. Is it a bigger priority that mom work part time somewhere so that she can be with the kids (idk if your wife works part time or full time, but for this example, we’ll say she works part time), or maybe your priorities are your passions, so instead, mom gets the full time, well paying job, and dad (you) get the part time job to be with the kids, and pursue writing, etc. and maybe someday that will become a full time job, and the wife can leave her full time job and be a stay at home mom, pursue her passion, etc.
Family comes first, but if you change your lifestyle a bit, then i think you can make it work so at least one of you can pursue your passion!
I also like what Shawn said about if you pursue your passions, opportunities to make money doing it will present itself!
One of the things that Mike Foster once said to me about this conversation was “Keep your day job, it allows you to be dangerous with your passion.” By that he meant that if I went too far into the passion of Christian writing and made it my entire income, I would be tempted to play it safe. For example, it’s one thing to write honestly about a raw subject when you know your salary and the food you feed your kids with is not dependent on it being well received. It’s another thing when what you write as your passion is directly tied to your ability to live and pay your bills. So his point was always try to keep your passion dangerous. Not being afraid that some place I am speaking will cancel me because I wrote about porn or something, gives me the freedom to write about what matters to me. That approach doesn’t work for everyone but for me as an author it has.
That’s good stuff.
Pull quote for back of Jonathan Acuff’s next book: “porn…matters to me.”
LOL
Writing is my living and I try really hard to not play it safe. Then again, maybe I should…
Actually, I’m think/praying about making a major shift in what I write. And if I do… it won’t be safe.
MPT, I’m not sure the CBA is ready for Christian Erotica, but good luck anyway
This is where I seem to be falling on the spectrum these days. I can see career paths that match up with some of my passions, but I’ve noticed many people who started out passionate in these areas lose that fire once they combine their passion and employment. It’s made me really weary of committing to a career path that aligns with my passions because I don’t want to fall out of love with the things I thoroughly enjoy.
Words of wisdom from Mike Foster though, for sure.
waters don’t part until your heel hits the water
this statement carries a lot of weight for me because I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I know that you’ve left a couple “good” jobs to pursue your dreams, despite the risk. for better or worse, i’ve always admired you for that. thanks for sharing.
Doing something that you do not like sucks, that is a pretty obvious statement. But I think what is lost sometimes is that we can still do what we love, we just might not make a living doing it.
I wonder the implications that will be felt down the road from all the authors and bloggers that have made it “big” and now preach the message of how to make it big by doing something you love and are passionate about. For example, what if you quit your job brian because you hated it and wanted to do something you loved, like blogging and being funny. You start to work your butt off trying to make a living while doing something you love, but after a while it turns into a job and really are not going anywhere because thousands of others are doing something they love of writing and humor? Not that you cannot do that, I just wonder sometimes if the implication of doing something you love as a job will over saturate the market and therefore turn something you love into a job and a struggle of making a living.
This might not make much sense, I hope it does.
But I do think you ask a good question.
All I know is that you will always have to do things that you do not like, unfortunately that is life.
Good question. I think if you have a family to provide for your passion should be providing for them, and your personal “passions” should be secondary. If you can provide for your family on the income from your desired job, great! But, I would venture to say that the majority of dudes, including myself, pursuing a creative path need to be bi-vocational to some degree to make that happen. It’s not a “should your passion be your career question” to me, if you can’t make a living doing it, it’s not your career, it’s an interest of yours that takes up time.
Interesting to think about myself as being bi-vocational.
I’ve always had the mindset of “I have a job that I don’t particularly enjoy, and a hobby that I love.”
But it’s interesting to change that around and think, “I have a main job that I don’t particularly enjoy, but pays the bills. And I have a second job that I love, that doesn’t pay the bills. But hopefully some day can contribute more and more to my income.”
With the amount of time I put into the blog and writing, it feels like a second job. So that’s an interesting concept.
Following up on my previous comment about how few people actually make their main income from web-based endeavors…
I think approaching this as bi-vocational is the way to go, at least in the beginning. Since it does take time away from your family and other pursuits, you should seek ways to monetize it as quickly as possible. However, it is good to have a mindset of that being supplemental income, not a get-rich quick scenario, or even “I’ll be able to quit my day job.”
If you get really good at it and become very popular, there’s the chance that it could produce eventually an income stream that would allow you to do it full time. But that should come as a blessing, not as an expectation.
I have thought about this SO many times…it’s kinda nice to hear other people struggling with this thought process. My husband is going through Seminary right now, so I’ve kinda had to take the role of the bread winner for now.
I’m a secretary at a rather large church (funny to think that I don’t absolutely LOVE working at a church!) but it’s not really what I’m passionate about. Some days are fine, but I never come home going, ‘Yes! That was such a fulfilling day of work!’ It’s made me want to look for work elsewhere because, more often than not, I come home kinda down and almost always exhausted.
My husband usually reminds me in these moments that if we brought up this question to our grandparents, they’d probably laugh at us. When they went to work, it didn’t matter if they were ‘fulfilled’ by their job. They went to work whether they liked it or not, got a paycheck and provided for their families. The fact that they had a job and could use it to provide was, like you said, a blessing.
I really think that if you can actually do what your passionate about as a full-time job that can provide for your family, that’s awesome and you should go for it. But, for me, to become a recording artist and make money off of CD sales just probably isn’t going to happen.
I think that God has been trying to teach me to be content in Him and content in what He has given me today. And today, I have a full-time job that provides for a lot of our bills. It may not be my ‘dream job,’ but it is what God has given me for this time in my life.
GREAT question!
Having spent some time in a third-world country, I think it’s important to note that the freedom to choose a career path is a relatively new phenomenon and one that is somewhat limited to folks living in more privileged socioeconomic environments. To say that one MUST follow his or her “true passion” is a bit unfair when so many people around the world work hard in unglamorous jobs in order to provide for their families and contribute to their communities. There is great honor in faithfully performing even the most mundane duties.
That said, I’m one of those rare, lucky people who is doing what she loves for a living. Well, I’m not exactly making a great living…but I write books and speak and keep a blog, and occasionally people pay me for it. It’s fantastic – and not a day goes by where I don’t wonder how I got to be so privileged – but the truth is it isn’t ultimately fulfilling. It’s not as though publishing my first book has made me blissfully content or deeply satisfied or skinny like Heidi Klum.
I’m pretty sure that the things that are truly fulfilling – relationships, the fruit of the spirit, successful practical jokes – are available to all people, no matter their status or station in life.
One more thing:
My husband and I did choose to live more simply so that we could pursue our passions. We seriously sat down one day and asked ourselves, “What do we really want?” and came to the conclusion that we would rather have risk with freedom than security with boredom.
Like I said before, this is a choice a lot of people around the world do not get to make.
…But we got to choose. And we decided that having new phones, cars, furniture, and clothes wasn’t as important to us as meeting some of these life goals.
Marry a doctor, then follow your dream.
I know plenty of single doctors in Birmingham if anyone is interested.
If your dream is to become a doctor, marry for looks.
From the outside, I probably look like one of those people living the dream. I wanted to write books for a living, and now I’m a full-time self-employed writer who writes books. But if you look closer at my income, you’ll find that the books are about 15-20% of the bacon I bring home. I supplement it with a lot of corporate copywriting. That’s my background, I’m good at it, and it pays better than writing books, to be honest.
So I’m doing what I love, but I’m a realist about it. If I could ONLY write books and live off that income, I would. I’ve been moving this direction for about 15 years through some unfulfilling but professionally advantageous jobs in printing, advertising, creative design, and ministry. All of them gave me opportunities to use my gifts, and all of them propelled me, in some way, to where I am today. I also worked very hard and was really, really patient. (I’m not a risk-taker at all.)
So my big piece of advice isn’t just to try to do what you love. Instead, I’d say this:
1) Have a goal, and take steps (even small ones) toward that goal. Pursue the dream, but…
2) Be a realist. You need to provide for your family. Try to get paid not by doing things that make you happy, necessarily, but by doing things you’re good at, because it’s REALLY important to…
3) Find a way to use your gifts. If you have a natural ability or talent, you need to put it to work somehow. If you can’t get paid for it, then use it to serve people. I’m good at writing. So I need to be writing.
Somebody like Bryan offers a good example. While he may shoot videos showing us way too much of his nostrils, he clearly has the stuff to be a good engineer. That’s a gift he’s using. He may not always like it, but he has a mind for it and he’s using it. He’s also very funny and a great writer, and right now he’s doing that on the side. Satisfaction comes, I think, not from which direction the money’s coming from but from how much you are able to use your abilities — to provide from your family, to love and serve others, to improve the world around you.
“satisfaction comes…from how much you are able to use your abilities” – i think that’s a great way to put it, and that’s what leads to frustration for me, when work and life are so busy that I dont have time to write quality jokes and record video tours of my nostrils.
always appreciate your insight Jason, thanks for sharing.
I wouldn’t say it “should.” I think sometimes people miss out on truly experiencing their passions because they’re so focused on turning it into a way to make a living. I think the journey depends on the individual–what their passion is, how talented they are at that passion, their life circumstances, etc….
I’ve met so many people who come to Nashville to pursue their passion without having pursued their “passion” right where they are. Some of those same people miss out on doing their passion–at church, at bars, with friends, etc–because they focus on “making it.” So many crash and burn and end up working at Starbucks (not that there’s anything wrong with working at Starbucks!!) However, I believe there is something wrong with working @ Starbucks if you’re working there and not somehow engaging what you love…
I think a person should pursue their passion, and if they end up getting paid for it–in the words of the late great Rich Mullins–”then thank the Lord-He’s been doubly good to you.”
You make some good points matthew. truth is, not all of our passions are monetizable. Because of the internet and blogs and all that, there is a better chance than ever that your passions COULD be monetizable, but you still probably have an uphill battle.
Some days I am just thankful that I’m able to write stuff and share it with a bunch of people, regardless of the fact that it doesn’t pay.
There is a widely-believed myth that it is relatively easy to make money by “monetizing” your creative work on the Internet. The truth is, there are a lot of people making a little bit of money, but very few making a lot of money (or even enough to “live on.”)
I know people who have very popular blogs or podcasts, listened to or read by many thousands of people, but almost none of them make their living by it. I know of about ten web comic artists whose comics are among the most read on the web, and only one of those makes his full-time living by it, and in his case only because the t-shirts he produces as a by-product of his strip have become (for now) very popular amongst hipsters.
I don’t share any of that to discourage anyone from pursuing the web as a creative outlet. I myself have been actively monetizing my blog (and will be starting a podcast very soon), and have been excited to see the income go from a couple dollars a month to enough to take my wife to a nice dinner each month.
If you can pursue your creative passion, get a little return out of it, but are willing to do it in addition to the day job, then you are in good (and large) company.
You know something? I’m not even concerned about the money. Just love. Just the joy that I feel in creating. And more importantly, the joy that I know God has given me that simply comes from expressing myself–from working with the creative impulses that He has placed within my heart.
Quite often my passion burns so deeply within that I truly believe I can eventually earn a living from what brings me joy. But even if I never make a dime, I have no intention of letting my flame die.
Excellent question. I have wrestled with it for eight years. And I just gave notice this month.
I determined that life is too short to dedicate that much of myself to something I find rather unimportant. I feel that without the burden of doing (extremely demanding, stressful) work I find unfulfilling, I can be a better wife, a better daughter, and a better friend.
Big lifestyle changes are ahead. But my priorities are finally in order. And I am living consistently with those priorities.
“I determined that life is too short to dedicate that much of myself to something I find rather unimportant.” – I have thought the same exact thing many, many times.
keep us informed on how it goes for you. sounds exciting!
Bryan,
When I was first out of college, I began working as a landscape architect because that was what I was trained to do. I hated it. I wanted to be outside, working with others, not drawing parking lots. Design school did not teach the part about placing warehouses on deforested sites would be the majority of my work. About two years in, I made a leap to working with plants and gardens. I was scared out of my mind because it would mean a big pay cut. I did it and kept looking for a challenge. I am fortunate and blessed to be in my dream job. It was a tough road. While our friends racked up cool toys, we did without. We continue to live simply. Financial matters aside, I am always looking for new and innovative ideas to bring to my job. Right now, business and Christianity are at a tipping point. Progressive and innovative ideas are going to set people apart. The ideas and blogs that you, Johnathan, Shawn, and others are sharing are preparing others for some really big change. Right now, I am reading about the French Impressionists who did not decide that they were going to change the world of painting. They grew tired of romantic painters dictating how painting should be done. A small group started experimenting and were harassed by critics and status-quo artists. These were the likes of Manet, Monet, and Degas.
Sorry to ramble on but do what you love, forget about the critics, and definitely figure it out as you go along (which means paying the bills… it gives you something to talk about later on when you’re successful at what you love).
For what it’s worth, I appreciate you as a quality engineer at a pharmaceutical company. I’m a healthcare administration major in college and it’s so critical to have good people working in the healthcare industry (and industries directly connected to healthcare).
And yes, I’m assuming that you’re “good people.”
Thanks for the different perspective Vy. I like to think I do a good job as a Quality Assurance Engineer at our company, despite not being really passionate about it. Some of my coworkers know about the other things I like to do, but most don’t. And I do try to keep a good attitude at work because it’s easy to get sucked into the negativity vortex.
As long as I’m there I’ll always try to be a positive influence and I’ll always thank God for providing for our family the way He has.
A Holy Discontentment. Bryan, I believe that you are at a pivitol point in life. How exciting…but SERIOUSLY scary!
I believe that we were all given extrodinary gifts from a Father that loves to lavish them on His children. I hesitate to boldly state my next opinion considering I haven’t pondered it for long. On first, heart/gut instinct I want to say that those of us who are not making a living off of our unique gifts and talents are a bi-product of a lack of radical faith or Godly vision.
Sure, these dreams of grandeur take years to establish and we all aren’t given the green light from the get go but extreme faith and trust in what God has placed in our hearts is the catalyst that propels us to make our dreams a reality!
Why would God place such a burning desire in your heart simply to hide it, stifle it, and keep it to yourself?
You have been given a unique ability to warm the heart with laughter. To bring life in places of the heart that are dead. To provoke thought and spur minds to think outside the box. This is a rarity.
It may not be God’s time for you to walk away from your job right now but I think you should continue to dream and continue to write. Read about the many courageous men that waited on God before you. Learn from them. Plan for it to come. Prepare your family for the transition. Wait expectantly.
I apologize if this comes off too spiritually for some but how can it not when you find yourself in such a God moment?
I would suggest reading Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering.
thanks for sharing Ashley. I do believe that the talents/gifts I have (whatever they are) are gifts from God and can be used for Him. Right now I’m trying to use them as much as I can, but it is frustrating when 40 hours of your week are taken up by something else, because you know you could do more with that time.
But like you said, the timing might not be right now. Will it ever be? Maybe, maybe not. But I will continue to pursue my passions and continue to pray about them to make sure it’s not just me wanting things for myself that God doesn’t want.
Gosh, Brian. What a coincidence! This very subject has been on my mind quite a bit:
Here, pay attention to the speaker’s underlying message…Hustle until you can do exactly what you want…
http://claireshegoes.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/say-it-with-me-now/
I’ve written more thoughts that relate to your question, including…
http://claireshegoes.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/paper-and-parables/
Sorry. I don’t mean to pimp my blog in your comments. Those are some of the most recent posts I can think of that relate to what you asked.
I just thank the Lord that I have some time off. I’m now of the mind that my spare minutes ought to be spent in pursuit of what God has placed on my heart.
We weren’t meant to waste our gifts.
Good grief. I see I misspelled your name.
Sorry.
Bryan – I’ve been wrestling with the same thing. For those of us who are working stiffs true priorities must be met. However I don’t think it’s at the expense of our passions and what we’ve been created to do. There could be any number of things that the Lord is trying to teach us (contentment, faithfulness in the little things etc.). But sometimes that just doesn’t satisfy that persistence in us that there has to be more than ‘fill in the blank’.
Personally I got to a point where I was so fed up I thought about quitting my job and just trying it. Then I really felt like the Lord was hinting for me to start at ways that my passions could be used in my job.
That might seem obvious to some, but for me it was a little mind blowing. (One of the dumber sheep in the flock… I know.) So now I’m asking Jesus to show me how to use what He’s given me in terms of passion, creativity, writing & art. Not only to fulfill the desire in me to be those things but to also be used to positively impact where I am right now. It’s the only thing that’s keeping me sane.
I don’t know what kind of opportunities there are for you in your job to try something like this. Or if it’s even possible. But I thought I’d toss it out there nonetheless.
Sorry for the rambling! (And possible run-on sentences…) I’ll be praying for you. You’ve got gifts that are meant to be used – no doubt. Praying that Jesus will give you that next step in how your passions actually lived out in the day-to-day life He’s given you now.
1. Paul’s passion: spreading the gospel. Paul’s occupation: tentmaker. I can’t say whether Paul enjoyed being a tentmaker. We assume he didn’t, but there had to have been some good reason he became one in the first place. But for us, being in a place we don’t like can cause us to seek out, and then clearly identify, our passion.
2. Contentment comes from being in the will of God, not our circumstances. To use Paul again, he was in prison when he wrote that he had learned to be content whatever the circumstances. He found purpose in his circumstances — he said he was in chains for the gospel. Do we judge too many things in life based on our circumstances?
3. If our occupation doesn’t seem to match our passion, we shouldn’t overlook the impact our passion is making (or, perhaps, should be making) on those around us in our occupation.
Several people have made reference to Paul as tentmaker. But is there any indication in the NT that that is a model for everyone? Paul makes it clear that his continuation of his trade was a conscious and deliberate choice on his part because he did not want to be a burden on the churches he served. At the same time, he upheld the principle of “the workman is worthy of his hire,” stating that there was nothing wrong with those who did make a “living” from the gospel, as long as their motives were not gain.
All that to say I think Paul’s example is just one model among many legitimate ones of how to follow one’s passion.
Interesting topic. The best I can contribute is, is it Biblical? Of course, we cannot find prime examples of how to handle specific life situations in the Bible, but more or less, we can find prime examples of the character of Mankind during other situations of men and women in the Bible and etc. For instance, back to the apostle Paul with his tent making, we do not know whether he enjoyed tent making–but we sure can guess he was probably witnessing to all those surrounding him, and that his finished products presented a commitment to quality only God glorifying men will produce.
Albert Barnes sums our life purpose this way, “all should be done as become the Gospel” (Phil. 1:12-27). Our “passion” in life should be to advance the extraordinary gift of Christ. Although we should use our talents and creativity to express Christ (remember, the death of Christ for us is a greater gift than any gifted talent a human can produce–after all God is the one who created our “creativity”).
Extreme confusion is derived from Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Think of what the desires of your heart are, or correctly put, what does the Bible say about the desires of our heart, and what those desires should be (remember “the heart is deceitful above all things” Jer. 17:9). The desires of the heart for a Christian are to glorify God! If your desires are to glorify God, he will give everything you need to glorify Him–he will give you a desire to make people laugh, to uplift them so they can glorify Christ, he will give you a job so you can passionately provide for your family to glorify Him–or he may give you unemployment so you can passionately convey that your hope is not in the security of money.
Passionately pursue the Lord at your current job, and if there is a need to change vocations, passionately pursue Christ there, too.
This life is only a vapor; we need to be preparing our souls for the greatness that is to come in the next life, things that we cannot even imagine. Because this world is fallen by sin, not everyone can pursue their passions as a vocation (as much as our American Dream mindset hates to admit that).
John Maxwell said it best: “Do the things you need to do when you need to do them so you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them.” In life you have to pay on the front end so that you can enjoy things on the back end…I have had the privilege of living my passion and getting paid for it. I have am presently working a job that is not a passion. However, by doing what I am doing now, I will be able to in the future once again fulfill my passions…Just b/c your current situation doesn’t allow you to live out your passion does not mean that it will not allow you to position yourself for the future. If you don’t pay on the front end, you will pay on the back end.
As much as I’d rather be songwriting or blogging, I wake up everyday to a Blackberry screaming with appointments that don’t seem to line up with my long-term goals. However, it’s when I least expect it–when I’m sitting in traffic, spilling coffee on my skirt, or pumping gas in the cold and rain that I notice the people and things happening around me. Even though the every-day is often times multiple shades of chaotic, those are the moments I think we learn the most about ourselves and it’s when we truly get inspired to do the things we love as soon as we have a free moment.
I think that if my job were really fun, say, like going to Wally World every day, I’d have to pay them and admission fee. But, since my job sometimes sucks, they have to pay me to show up and do it.
So, I’m ok without the dream job. Heck. Once you live your dream, what do you have to live for?
Would I be better at a job I truly love? Maybe. Don’t know for sure. Can I provide for my family, honor my commitments, and make time for my passion with a so-so job? Yes.
The Apostle Paul was a tentmaker. Jesus was a carpenter. Peter was a fisherman. It’s part of what we do, yet separate from who we are.
bagels
We got to talk a little about this last week on the golf course, so you know that I’ve been back and forth about contentment and jobs and even places to live for about 4 years now.
Contentment is hard to define, especially when it comes to a family because you really have 4 different views of contentment unless you are all united. Given your kids are, well, kids, it’s hard to ask them to take on the yoke of adult contentment decisions.
As I was watching your video (didn’t put in the hair product, eh? you didn’t let Tyler get to you, did you?) I realized that in my job (as a engineer of sorts) I find fulfillment in about 10% of my job. The other 90% sometimes makes me just want to walk away, but when I get to do that 10%, then I am fueled for a good bit. What is that 10%? It’s writing articles, speaking at conferences, presenting new ideas, collaborating with other leaders, editing other people’s writing, and when I get around to it, designing new things for on-campus. None of those is really confined to my job area of library technology, but I’ve realized that I’m good at them, and until I can develop them to go out on my own and consult (if I ever really decide to do that), I need to tap into that 10% as much as I can to get me through that other parts. And slowly, try to get that 10% to be more like 20% or 30% or 50%, etc.
But that’s just my story. Because I like to name drop well known people, I remember watching an interview Don Miller did with Michael Hyatt. I think he was running a small printing company or something like that when he was trying to decide about writing full time. He said that when he sat down with his pastor to discuss it, his pastor asked him to define an amount he would need to have to do this full time. So Don wrote down a number and shared it with his pastor. And he told Hyatt that for his contract for Blue Like Jazz, they hit that number exactly. Not a little more, not a little less, but exactly.
So from the financial/practical side of it, I would encourage you and Erica to come up with that number for you. Maybe you hit that in combination by your savings and the upswing $ you start getting in writing and speaking. Maybe you hit it through your first major project. Maybe Tripp and Tyler offer that to you to write for their sit-com (remember, don’t tell them your number).
From the spiritual side, remember always that you are gifted in everything you are doing now: in the stuff you don’t like and in the stuff you love. Your giftedness isn’t changed by the dislike or joy you get from using those gifts. You already know this by being a father. I hate some of the things I have to do as a father, but I love being a father, and that I get to share my gifts with them.
Speaking of that, it’s almost lunchtime, and my 19-month-old son gets to come have lunch with me today, so I gotta get some work done.
FYI Tim, I had plenty of product in my hair in this video. Just had it laying down instead of spiked up. I need me a haircut. (and Tyler will never get to me.)
Great thought provoking Bryan.
I guess another crossroads scenario is what about doing the one thing you have a passion for, but not at the place you are doing it?
In other words, if you are at one place doing the thing you are passionate about, but it required you to modify your #1 priority of taking care of the family, and it meant relocating would accomplish that, is it worth the relocating, or should you accept your spot and be content?
If it can be, then why shouldn’t it be? I think the hard part is that making it the case is often the part that is not your passion.
Putting together a business, staying on top of things, etc is the hard part that most people don’t want to mess with. I personally would rather “just get by’ doing what I love than make much more doing what I don’t.
I’ve been fortunate enough to fall into the first category and haven’t regretted the opportunities I’ve passed on that would have traded passion for money.