Do What You Love

Life is filled with decisions and it can be daunting at times to make the right choices.

You may be bored of working 9 to 5 or being pressured to do things you don’t like. It can be hard and tiring to live a life like that. If we don’t make the right choices, chances are that we may end up regretting our decisions in the end.

It is never too late to do the things you wanted to do. Just don’t live on autopilot.

Want to be a writer? Try your hand at writing. Read a lot, write a lot, devote yourself to the art of writing. Want to be an artist, a dancer, a cook? Just try your hand at what you love. Do only those things which you love doing. Do things you are passionate about.

Not sure what you want to do in life? Stop dreaming and start searching. Keep looking and you’ll find out.

Steve Jobs once said:

“It’s the intersection of technology and liberal arts that make our hearts sing.”

If Jobs hadn’t listened to his heart, we would have never seen Apple as a successful company. He listened to his heart and stayed committed to his path.

What makes your hearts sing? Keep searching but never settle

Successful people become successful not because they want to get rich. It is because they have a motive, a goal which doesn’t let them sleep. Once you figure out a thing–a hobby for e.g.–which truly enjoy doing, it may be possible that you could turn it into a career.

Don’t get attracted to things which just interest you on the surface. Most people mistaken them as their passion and over time lose interest, leaving them halfway. Ask yourself if this is the only thing you truly want to do for the rest of your life. It is okay to spend time searching, looking for something you’re truly passionate about and doing that thing for the rest of your life without regrets than wasting your time doing things you don’t like and regretting in the end.

Once you know your goal, you can start working toward it. Stay consistent, work hard—and most importantly—enjoy what you do. The process should give you immense happiness.

When you cultivate all the right habits, there is no going back. It is only when you stop living someone else’s life and start living your own is what makes your life valuable.

When you have the right framework for your life, it is easy to focus on the necessary things. People who lack the framework do odd jobs, live life just for the sake of it without direction and purpose.

Successful people never settle for money, for them there is nothing bigger than learning and becoming the better version of themselves. They constantly grow. They utilise their skills at the right places, grab the right opportunities and are willing to take risks. It is only when the money follows. This is one of the reasons why I am inspired by those who have done something in life, without excuses.

Start living life with a purpose

I often find people who are willing to settle for a good pay but not for something they would love to do. They live for others, not themselves. What’s even more surprising is that they provoke other people to live a life like theirs. It is okay to do an odd job to make ends meet if someone’s in desperate need of money, but don’t sacrifice your ‘entire’ life for it. In your free time, do things that interest you, which make you happy and give some purpose to your life. You’ll end up feeling more happy and won’t feel like some failure with nothing but regrets.

I started my career in computer science; it was my parents who wanted me to become an engineer. Over time I was stressed with studies. I made a short-term plan I worked on just to pass my exams and that was it. Over the course of time my interests grew in various different things. It was only because I was thinking in the long term. I didn’t wanted to settle for any mediocre job in my life, I was thinking of those things that would make me happy, things that I was comfortable with for the rest of my life and which I could make money off. I tried my hand at various different things from language learning to tech—sure other people may be passionate in those things but I was not, I was looking for something else—but nothing seemed to interest me.

Finally, I figured out what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a writer. It was writing that gave me immense pleasure, and with which I could earn a few bucks too. I was only able to figure it out because I looked for it within. It was the only skill I needed to hone to set myself apart and was glad that I figured it out early in my life. Not everyone is that lucky, only a few manage to take total control of their life. If I had settled on the choice of being an engineer, I would have deeply regretted that decision in the end.

The first step to take for a successful life is to take the step in the right direction, till you reach your goal.

When you start with something in mind, you get a direction, a path on which you can improve yourself. Just don’t take multiple hobbies and do them simultaneously. Instead, choose one thing that you love the most over any other thing; Put your heart into it, work hard and most important of all, make sure it gives you happiness. You don’t want to get bored in the process.

This is called ‘doing what you love.’

Don’t think of success as some sort of fame. Success has many definitions, one of them which I personally follow is: Being successful in overcoming yourself on being the better you.

There is no next time, the right time to change is right now.

The people who realize this earlier, make all the difference. Procrastination just takes you away from your goals. Don’t just wait for things to happen, because there will be no better time. Whatever time you have right now is the right time. Stop worrying about the outcomes and do what you always wanted to do.

I remember finding my mentors who inspired me on my journey on becoming a writer. Great authors who kept reminding me that whatever you do is now, or it’s never.

Our intentions drive us and make us who we are. Just stop spending your time reading quotes on success, instead make it happen. Just work your way out. There are plenty of mentors to guide you; you just need to find the right ones.

Turning your hobbies into a career isn’t easy, but it’s by no means difficult. It takes a great deal of persistence and hard work. A job must always be fun and enjoyable, not stressful. That’s how I see it. If you do not love what you’re doing or feel lost in life, it is entirely on you to change it.

Time waits for no one, so shouldn’t you.