What if you’re still not clear about what you are meant to do? You may be someone who doesn’t need to love your job. In fact, your job might just be something that gives you the room to do the stuff you love—a means to an end, rather than the end in and of itself.
So in that case, what do you not hate? You still deserve a day-job that doesn’t deplete you or bum you out, so what are some things you’ve found satisfying? What do you not object to doing, to the extent that you can do it for the length of your work-week?
I’ll be honest: this is a little hard for me to wrap my head around because I find so much richness and meaning in my work. But I’ve also talked with enough people that I know not everyone is put together like I am, and that that can present a whole new set of challenges. If you follow career folks like me on social media, you’ll see a whole lot of “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”-type quotes (Confucius, if you wondered), and that can leave people feeling a lot of anxiety because there aren’t any jobs they love. These are people who want life-work balance instead of work-life. This might be you!
If you aren’t a person who needs to love your work, please don’t feel that that’s strange or somehow lacking. You have other ways to give your life meaning and passion. So your task is actually a little easier: what kind of job can you imagine doing and not hating? What skills have you enjoyed using? What can you do that will leave you with enough energy to pursue what you really love on weekends and vacations? What kind of money and benefits would feel good? What have you been told you’re good at? Focus on these instead of that big passion goal and you’re halfway there!
And don’t let people tell you that you need to love your job. I need to love my job, but you might be someone who really just needs to feel good at what you do. There is no right or wrong except as is true for you.
