Growing up I was told, “ Do what you love! Be passionate! ” I worked to find what I loved and could do for a career.
I have found a love for teaching, but I have also loved my times helping in an Occupational Therapist’s office and volunteering with foster children; by now, I have found many things I love. How can I do what I love when I cannot do it all?
I’ve come to find that what you love does not necessarily equate to your passion. We say, “do what you love,” but maybe that’s not it at all. Maybe it’s “do what makes you ache.”
Passion is seeing something and feeling the spark it sets off in you. It is seeing a need and realizing you can fill in the gaps, and the thought of not doing so leaves you empty. It is saying, “This is going to be messy and difficult, and maybe it won’t pan-out the way I hope, but I cannot imagine doing anything else.”
Passion is not what you love. You will likely love it, but that is not the defining factor. I love a lot of things – family, books, coffee, making an excessive amount of puns in the grocery store – but those things are not my passions.
What makes my heart ache the most is seeing the education system, listening to middle- and high-school students talk about how much they despise learning. I see a need for dedicated, loving teachers, and thinking about not helping with that need leaves me empty. While I am able to identify other gaps in the world I could fill, none of them fill me up the same way.
Instead of finding what you love, find your joys and your talents. Find what you’re good at, learn to be better, and work hard. Find a need in the world and fill it.
For some of us, the need that fuels us will seem to be noble and grand – like being the one to bring clean water to twenty-seven villages or actually serving your constituents in Congress.
For others, it will seem small in comparison – like being a fair plumber or creating art for local projects or selling printers. And maybe the need you fill is in a volunteer position, not your nine-to-five job. Maybe you're not especially thrilled about sitting at a desk, answering a phone and talking to rude customers, but you realize you need to do it to make a living. In that case, there are incredible volunteer opportunities for just about every cause you can imagine.
Get involved and ease the ache in your chest.
In terms of jobs, we need to realize that no need is greater than any other. Yes, people need clean drinking water and solid politicians. But who are you going to call when your pipes burst?
Certainly not your senator. In order for a society to properly function, we need people who are willing to work in all sectors and departments. We need people to care for the sick, to fix roads, to build homes, to teach children, to deliver goods, to create and innovate, to pass laws, to create beautiful things. We need people to be the face of change, but also to change the world as the body.
A biblical principle that permeates to every organization and society: the body has many parts. We cannot all be the face of change, just as we cannot all be the feet that tirelessly guide us or the hands that get directly in the grime of life or the organs that keep everything running and going.
We need big dreamers, but we also need grounded workers.
Find your skills, identify your ache, and get to work.
