Where Are You Going With “Do What You Love"?

Something keeps echoing – “Do what you love”!  Listen to

motivational speeches or read career-oriented articles – they pump your mind with the same statement, “If it’s about choosing a career, do what you love, because everything is possible”. It’s a dangerous statement. Don’t forget, there is a timeline to every possibility. And that timeline could be hazy. I have usually seen the notion of “everything is possible” is outrageously overrated. Right now, why don’t you go and demand from the powers of the universe to grant you all the money in the world at your doorstep tomorrow morning? Possible? How about assessing possibilities in a practical way? How about assessing “what you love” in a practical way? I am sure you don’t want to get overly emotional and head out like a raging bull to achieve what you love.

So imagine there are two career options in your hand. You love the second one – and you don’t realize that the first option lies pretty well within your capability and is suitably possible than the other. 

So because you love the second one, you go for it, despite you lack skills to achieve it. Soon you realize, although you do everything you need, you fail to achieve it. Time comes, when you get bogged down. You come across “love what you do” OR “everything is possible” OR “demand from the universe” speeches. You get tentatively inspired. You pick yourself up, and start from scratch. To your surprise, failure says hello again. You feel shattered, and you quit. Then one day, you are gone from this world with an old grumpy feeling that says “I couldn’t do what I loved”. Game over! Isn’t it? Now what happened to “do what you love” statement? How about considering this – “do what you can possibly love”?

Time to simplify and discover a simple solution with a bit of wisdom-twist. Strictly, don’t start with “what you love”. Work it out the reverse-engineering way. Begin with all the skills and talents that are lovable about you and see if they perfectly complement the things you could possibly pursue in life. The best of these are your God-gifts – count them. God-gifts are capabilities that you are born with. Now count your skills. Skills are capabilities that you acquire from the environment around you. When you contain a natural ability of doing something combined with skills, chances are high, that it will take fewer efforts for you to conquer the world. Next and the last step is to consider what you love. See if you can count upon your God-gifts and skills in line with what you love. Assess with your utmost wisdom whether they go well together or not. And you will magically have an answer to all your questions. It could be this way or that way. Not a problem now. At least you considered your most important assets, your capabilities.

We must assign and align our capabilities to possibilities, rather than aligning out-of-the-blue random thoughts. Note it down – In life, there are things that you do first, and then start loving them! So along with “what you want to do”, pay close attention to “what you can do”. And don’t take me wrong. I never meant to say, don’t do what you love. Just consider my reverse-engineering way-out, explained above. Remember, this is the simplest and the most practical way to approach anything you do in life. As I always say, the key is Simplifikayshun!

Rajat Kalra

Man of Simplifikayshun