But I don't want to go to bed...

So, what happens when you are really good at something, and do it for a living because you are good at it, but have absolutely no passion for it. It's a huge conundrum. I've been debating this one for years. I remember sitting down in grade eight with my “guidance councilor” having the talk about what I wanted to do with my life, and oppositely, what I should do with my life. It's not like you can't enjoy what you do, but if there is no passion for it, or your passion lies in other areas, it can turn into a sore or bitter point for many people. I consider myself pretty lucky (meh) in the aspect I have done many things in my “working years” that I wanted to do instead of doing things that I had to do.

Without blathering on for paragraphs about my various careers thus far (and those that will probably occur in the future), I think it's time to open the debate portion of tonights festivities.

One of the (many) problems I have with the scholastic/guidance/parental advice systems that we currently have in place is from the time we are very young, we are all encouraged to try to decide what we want to do with our lives based purely on monetary gains rather than passion. I firmly believe that there are thousands of creative geniuses out there that will never realize their potential because they are guided towards becoming something to try and become rich. Guess what? You aren't going to be rich. Get used to it. You aren't going to own a Ferrari. Get used to it. If you do, you can come back and tell me I'm wrong, but the vast amount of people that think they are going to be millionaires sure have a nightmare to wake up from down the road. What I'm afraid of is when they realize it. You want to know why so many people snap at the workplace these days? This is definitely one of the contenders from that list. Dreamers are rarely encouraged to follow there dreams anymore.

Why not enjoy life instead of slaving away doing something you hate and slowly killing yourself?

I've always believed that it doesn't matter what you are worth, as long as you are happy, or at least content with your life.

Over the past X amount of years (insert any number you want for the X, any number works), I've encountered many people who have become so disillusioned with the system that they simply don't want to work. Do I think this is because these people genuinely hate working? Well, yes, because they have probably never had the chance to discover what they are passionate about. If given the chance and opportunity to discover what they love, I can guarantee that they would turnabout.

Now, the caveat with this whole thing is just because you are passionate about something, it doesn't necessarily mean it would be a good career choice. We all have to eat, pay rent, etc, and the reality is that we do need something for a source of income, but that doesn't mean that you have to put away your aspirations forever. For example, I work in an office environment just like my guidance councilor said I should, but that doesn't mean I put away my guitar, camera and film ideas. I still do those, and maybe someday I will be doing that as a career, but I have made certain compromises within myself to be able to do these things. Even though I do my 40+ hours a week I still come home and work on my film or write a new tune. The trick here is to keep those feelings/dreams alive and not let them die. If you keep working towards them, at the very least, you won't look back with regret when your forty asking yourself “What if?” Regret can be a bitch.

To paraphrase a very famous quote “When you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life”.

And on that note, I should probably get some sleep tonight before work tomorrow...