December 18, 2012

I Disagree with What Confucius Say

I love the BlogHer network. Today, I saw an interesting prompt there.

Discuss this quote by Confucius: "Choose a job you love,
and you will never have to work a day in your life."

Source
Sorry, Confucius, I beg to differ.

I am blessed to do several jobs that I love, but I'll use my favorite two as examples.

I Am A Mother
Twelve, almost thirteen, years ago, I chose to stay at home to raise my beautiful daughter, Jackie. My husband and I made the necessary sacrifices when I left a good job to do so. I have never regretted my choice, but I have also never worked so hard. I now have three daughters, and some days the only time I stop moving is to sit to write or to finally lower myself into bed way too late.

No matter how much I love my girls and my husband, it is constant work. It's better than doing work I would hate, but I used to get paid to do a lot less.

I Am A Writer
I never thought I'd get to truly own those words, and I know how blessed I am to have time to devote to something I love. Still, I work hard at it. And if there were more hours in the day, I'd work even harder.

It is a dream come true to have a book out there with my name on it. In 2013, I plan to publish two more books. Crazy! But it is only possible with a lot of long hours and dedicated time.

I know what Confucius meant when he said, "you will never have to work a day in your life." But, I think it diminishes the work you put into something you love to suggest it is not work.

Do you do something you love? If so, is it work?

2 comments:

Jo Michaels said...

Oh man... I work constantly. Five kids and a writing career take a toll on this lady. I get from four to six hours of sleep a night and it's never enough. Even on days I could stay in bed a little longer, my mind doesn't rest enough to allow me to take part.

As a mother, there's always something that needs doing. Cleaning, cooking, homework help, counseling, teaching, preaching, etc... I'm a wearer of many hats (as most mothers are).

As an indie author, omg what can I say? I'm a marketer, business owner, designer, editor, author, friend, reader, reviewer, blogger, etc... Adding those hats to my already tall stack makes me look like The Cat in the Hat times 5 billion.

You will always work harder when you work for yourself. But the payoff is so much bigger!

One of us will make it into the big boy seat one day. When we do, I hope we don't forget those that nurtured us along the way. I know I won't. You ladies help me stay sane :)

WRITE ON!

Callie Leuck said...

I think you hit on a pretty deep truth here, Tia. Even the things that I do because I love them have a lot of stress and some drudgery involved. (Spend three hours tracking down that one little detail that will end up being a few mere words in my article? But I want to wriiiiiiiite!)