All Play and No Work...

Do you ever get the feeling that something you're doing for fun just isn't as fun as it should be? 

Now, this could be due to a lot of things. Overly high expectations, unwelcome distractions. Maybe you've never had sex before and you're expecting it to blow your mind. (It probably won't.) Maybe you've finally got time to read that novel, but your kids or your spouse or an annoying friend want you to spend it with them instead. (Relationships are at stake here.)

But let's assume that you, lucky you, are both fully focused on enjoyment and fully aware of how much you should expect. Yet the feeling that the pleasure is somehow undeserved lingers, drowning it out over time. That can't be right, can it?

It's probably time to get back to work.

For anyone who has managed to blur the lines between work and play to the degree of doing the same things for both: I salute you. I can't do that. For me, work, no matter how much I enjoy it, is still work. And pleasure, no matter how much 'work' is involved, is still pleasure. That's just the way it goes.

Even as a child I was aware of this. I remember watching a movie marathon - a lot of TV in one sitting, at any rate - around the age of twelve and getting restless after a few hours. So I got up and did some housecleaning. Then I sat down and watched some more, and it was fun again. Because I'd earned it.

That still holds true today. I can't do 'just for fun' things for too long. (Most of my pleasures are sedentary ones. But that includes things like walks in the park too - and not just due to fatigue.) I start getting the nagging feeling that my time could be better spent.

Maybe I have a guilt complex.

But I think this is normal, and even healthy. It seems to me that work and play are simply halves of a whole. What is the whole, you ask? Satisfaction.

Think about it. Each results in an opposing form thereof. One requires time and energy to produce; the other is immediate, but fades with repetition. Exactly what form the reward takes - money, experience, satiation - depends on the circumstance. How satisfied you are depends on your values and preferences. And the combination of the two, productivity and enjoyment, how much you fulfill needs and how much yours are fulfilled, is perhaps the most important element of our emotional well-being.

It's how much you like your life.

Of course, all this is just another way of saying something we've all heard time and again: balance is essential. But I can't help thinking that maybe the key to doing what you love is not needing a balance at all. You simply need to make work and play the same thing.

And again: I can't do that. Take this post, for instance. I enjoy writing. I enjoyed writing it. I am proud of the finished result. But because of all the time and effort I put into it - several hours, if you're wondering - I am still going to classify this as 'work'. What can I say. I've never been one to blur the lines.

But I know it can be done. And maybe that's enough.

So again, to all you special people living your dreams, and to all the others dreaming of living them, like I am:

Here's to you.

Now I'm going to go play a video game. I've earned it.

Passion

No, not that kind of passion. 

Though it could be, really. All kinds are included in what I'm talking about today, which is a definition I've only just realized. Passion is something you don't ever want to stop.

I was just reading the biography of Aitthipat Kulapongvanich, born in 1984, who dropped out of school in his teens to be an entrepreneur. He's currently the CEO of one of the most successful snack food companies in Thailand.

This guy's a billionaire.

A lot of good stuff in his story, but what caught my attention was that, despite all the hardships he went through, he never got tired of work. He was passionate about it.

And that reminded me of a quote by another, perhaps more famous business luminary.

You may have heard of him.

                                                                

Steve Jobs said that you have to be passionate about what you do with your life. If you're not, you won't have the perseverance to keep doing it against all odds. (I paraphrase.) 

And that, in turn, made me think. I want to be a writer, but am I passionate about it?

I could spin you a good argument that I am. 

I like reading. The written word has always entertained me. Whether flat or colourful, vibrant or dull, it remains a window into the thoughts, the minds...the worlds of others. I like stories. Experiences both real and fictional, that I long for, or would rather not share in truth, or those I had never even imagined. They interest me. 

And I like order. Writing is, at its heart, a weaving of thought and memory into a form others can understand - creating order from chaos. There is beauty in that.

All that sounds nice, doesn't it. But see, I'm good at making arguments. We all are - to ourselves if no one else. Yet the truth is that a lot of the time, at their core, our choices come down to our feelings. And when I sit down to write, I don't always have the right ones. I'll be bored, or distracted. Sometimes I'll give in and go do something else. 

But when I don't, sooner or later I'll feel it: the drive to keep going, to create something that is, in its purest form, an expression of myself, as well as the satisfaction that comes from doing so. And a part of me won't ever want to stop.

So think about it. What's your passion?