For Love or Money?

While driving my son to school, my daughter (3-yrs old) started asking me what she can be when she grows up.  Some of her dream career choices included:  doctor, ladybug, bumble bee and finally, fireman.  Unless wearing Halloween costumes becomes a viable career in the future, I’m guessing that some of her choices probably aren’t going to be legitimate options, but I digress.  She seemed most excited about becoming a fireman and having her “big brudder (brother)” do the same, so that they can have fire truck races.

As a kid, you have the luxury of dreaming big and changing your mind whenever you please.  Eventually, that luxury disappears and a career path must be chosen.  This doesn’t mean that the first path has to be the only path, but changing gets harder as you get older unless you are willing to start at the bottom again.  In my experience, people don’t tend to end up doing a job that they dreamed about all of their lives.  Even those that end up in their desired field usually learn early on that reality rarely lives up to an outsider’s starry-eyed perceptions of what it’s like once you’re on the inside.  When it comes down to it, work is work – in every industry – at every company.

In an ideal world, we would all be able to make a living doing what we love.  But the ideal world bears very little resemblance to the real world.  In the real world, people need to make a living.  Often times that means doing what we can, not necessarily doing what we love, although there are those that “find their calling” and get to do both.  Those are the lucky ones!  And they are more the exception than the rule.

Ever since I launched Waldo 2010, people have been contacting me and giving me their feedback.  So far, it’s all been positive (which I appreciate very much).  A number of people have told me that they think that “I’ve missed my calling, and that I should have been a writer.” I appreciate the vote of confidence, and I’m glad that my writing is making a connection with people, but I wouldn’t say that I’ve missed my calling.

The truth is, I didn’t know how much I enjoyed writing until I started writing a real estate blog in the summer of 2007.  Eventually, my writing deviated from real estate topics into my personal life, and it gave me great satisfaction.  Of course, there was also instant recognition, as commenting on each other’s blogs was the easiest way to network with agents around the country and build relationships.  When you launch a new blog outside of a social network, the comments are usually few and far between, and the traffic is sporadic at best, so it takes focus and discipline to keep posting new material on a regular basis.

You may be wondering then, what motivates me to keep writing now that the initial buzz has faded, and there is certainly no payday coming from this in the near future.  Had I found “my calling” when I was younger, perhaps I would be writing for a living now.  Maybe someday I will be fortunate enough to write for a living.  Stranger things have happened.  But for now, I’m very happy with the way that things are progressing.

For the first time in my life, I feel that I am finding the right balance between doing what I love and doing what I need to do to survive.  I am passionate about all of the projects that I am working on, especially Waldo 2010 (for a number of reasons):

ACCOUNTABILITY – Without this blog, it would be very easy for me to make excuses not to exercise, eat properly, keep projects on the right track and move towards achieving my overall goals in my pursuit of “happyness.”

CONNECTIVITY – Sharing my personal self-improvement journey with others has afforded me the opportunity to connect with people on a deeper level than typical social networking mediums (such as Facebook) allow.  I’m amazed (and very grateful) that others are sharing their personal stories when they comment on my blog.

INSPIRATION – Because I feel an obligation to create fresh content for this blog, I have a heightened sense of awareness and purpose in my day-to-day life.  Everything that I feel or experience has the potential to be turned into something positive that I can share with others.

DISCIPLINE – By committing to this blog, I am also committing to living a healthier lifestyle and making the most of each business opportunity.

Writing may very well be “my calling.” Only time will tell if this is the case.  I’m not worried about missing my calling because there is no expiration date on dreams.  After all, Colonel Sanders founded KFC at the age of 66 after realizing that he couldn’t possibly live on the $100 that Social Security was providing on a weekly basis (considering that he was otherwise penniless).

For the time being, I’m happy that long-envisioned projects are starting to gain traction, new opportunities are presenting themselves and I am doing something that I love with this blog.  I still have to do what I can to make ends meet, but I do feel that I am finally on the path to the life that I want to live, not the life that I feel that I have to live because of circumstances.