This Is What It Really Means To Be Passionate About Your Career

They say that when you find work that you love, you’ll never have to work for the rest of your life. However, this isn’t exactly true.

Don’t get me wrong, finding a career you’re passionate about is the best thing in the world, but it isn’t perfect. A lot of people assume that having a career inclined towards your passion means you’ll never struggle and you’ll never go home exhausted and drained of energy. When you love your job, you actually end up just as exhausted as those who try so hard to love their jobs, if not more. Passion means that you find purpose and fulfillment in what you do, but it doesn’t guarantee a path that has no complications.

You’ll still have nights where you feel so burned out and drained, but the difference lies in the fulfillment you feel. It’s the kind of exhaustion that you know you wouldn’t trade for anything else in the world. When you work with passion, you feel motivated to start the day doing your job, no matter what challenges and circumstances you have to deal with. You know that even if you have to do this every single day for the rest of your life, you’d be proud of the life you’ve lived. You’d be proud of the impact you’ve made with your career. You’d be proud to say that it wasn’t just a job for you, but it was a career—and not many people can say that.

Passion is overrated, they say. Passion is the guarantee that gets you out of the hardships of adult life. However, these are all false notions. When you love what you’re doing in your professional life, it doesn’t change the fact that things are hard. It just changes the motivation you have when you wake up, and you find that you’re anticipating to do your work. Being passionate about your career means that you have lived a successful and fulfilling life, where success means that you were happy.

TCID: dorothy-anne-field