frontal attack

"If you have a job without any aggravations, you don't have a job." --Malcolm Forbes

In other words, "loving your job" is not the equivalent of enjoying every damn thing that's part of your job. Every job has elements you won't like at all. Loving your children doesn't mean that they are sweet, well-behaved creatures all day, and just the way they "should" be. On the contrary, if our love for somebody or something doesn't absorb a good portion of adversity, love ain't love.

The quest to find something you love to do for a living is often carried out as a "frontal attack" of the problem. What do I enjoy doing? What am I good at? Where are my strengths? Not even a mad bull would expect to win with such a doomed strategy. It's not likely to work well for you either.

Jobs per se are not our last inhumane bastion of self-hatred, but certainly one of vast proportions. Most jobs are an expression of self-neglect and certainly the lack of self-respect. You think your individuality is a liability, your creativity is worthless, and you aren't worthy of freedom? Get a job. Any job will do, in fact.

Jobs are time machines transporting you into the dark ages of socialism. You don't matter. The stuff you do doesn't matter. And your paycheck is rather immaterial. You are doing it mostly "for the benefits." You really believe you can improve on a pitiful situation like that? Well, fetch my free ebook 'How to Better Hate Your Job', pray hard, and I wish you the best of luck.

Forgive me! I got side-tracked. Apropos, that's what jobs are in general: detours of life. Jobs distract you from doing something worth your while. Jobs divert you from being yourself and from the development of your individual genius. Jobs are coffins of individuality (and so is multi-level garbaging), but hey babe: Don't quit if you have a job right now! I am serious. Build a business parallel to this bloody black hole of individuality. Start something on your own! And--as I hope you recall--it does NOT have to be based on activities you enjoy in order for you to love it.

Have you watched "Glory" with Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick--when Denzel could still act (and wasn't just Denzel Washington in a new setting)--or "The Patriot" with Heath Ledger and Mel (Oh-God-teach-me-to-be-a-less-obvious-antisemitic-ass-while-drunk) Gibson? You'll remember battle scenes with two armies standing vis-a-vis slaughtering each other, showing the brutal stupidity of frontal attacks.

When you attack your life's problems head on, you are becoming canon fodder just like dead soldiers of previous centuries. "I think only positive," or "I want to do what I enjoy for a living," are frontal attacks on your intelligence, and they aren't blessed with better chances to succeed than bitter exchanges of musket salvos in the 18th century. In order to do what you love, you don't have to do what you love.

Come again? Yep, you heard me perfectly well the first time.

Human beings have the incredible ability to love what they don't like. We can even hate what we're doing, and we can hate it so much that we love the way we hate it. Following our feelings is immature. "Yeah, but what if it doesn't feel right?" Your feelings and emotions got you by the nose? Not good. It's part of growing up to learn how to do WHAT YOU WANT without getting distracted or slowed down by the way you may feel.

You seriously believe Lance Armstrong could have won the Tour de France seven times--and he's preparing for the Tour de France 2009 as we speak--had he listened to his feelings all the time? Sure he likes cycling, but do you realize the inhumane pain he puts himself through to do what he wants?

If and when you do what you want, it will NOT feel good all the time. On the contrary, when you do what you really want you will go through so much pain that others would call it torture if they were forced to do the same, involuntarily. Doing what you want may cause you MORE pain than the job you hate so much. Being obsessed with feeling good is good only for morons. It's the frontal attack of loving what you do ... and childish: I love you as long as I like you.

In case you really want to to what you love, you gotta learn to love it while you hate it. When you do what you want it may hardly feel good at all. I promise, doing what you love will put you through more pain, trouble, and challenges than enduring a job you hate. And you got to love it.

The only thing that matters is that it is what YOU want. Who cares how that feels?!

Egbert Sukop