Why “Do what you Love & the Money will Follow,” is Terrible Career Advice.
I’m a money mindset coach.
Many people seek out my services because of their pervasive feeling of being unsatisfied with their jobs, and longing for something that will inspire them with passion and purpose.
They come to me with a strong conviction that if they could just discover what it is they truly love, then they would be on the right path and the money would follow; and they would know it’s the right path because it would feel easy.
Being that most of us receive a majority of our money from our jobs or chosen careers, it’s not surprising that I coach a lot of people on the source of where they receive their money.
I don’t offer up typical career advice, like personality tests or discovering your strengths, because what if those things are not predetermined or fixed?
I’m a causal coach, and I work with my clients to explore the root cause of what’s leading to their results. In order to do that, we start from the beginning; our thoughts influence our feelings, and we take action from our feelings, and our actions lead to results.
Many of us are unintentionally creating.
Many of us get bored, or stressed, or anxious doing mundane tasks in life and at our jobs. Because boredom or uncomfortable feelings are something we don’t love, we assume it means we have the wrong job.
Mistakenly, we think we’re entitled to feel good all the time.
We think something is wrong when we’re not always happy with our job. We end up making it our job’s fault that we don’t feel passion or purpose. It’s implied in the quote we’ve hitched ourselves to, like a star in the sky: “do what you love and the money will follow.”
I’m supposed to love it and I don’t, so I must have the wrong job—is often a thought a client will bring to me. Imagine how a thought like this would make you feel; that statement makes me feel flat and unmotivated.
What kind of action would someone take from that feeling? Probably be a lot of inaction.
We disengage when we feel unmotivated. We don’t invest in the job or upping our skillsets to be better or make a significant contribution. We passively show up, doing the minimum.
In addition, we don’t like feeling unmotivated, so we’re more likely to numb out with screens, or overeating—further adding to our feelings of unfulfillment.
We don’t make a difference and we feel unfulfilled—not because of the job—but because of our thoughts about the job.
For me, the feeling was always anxiety. Whenever I found a job too difficult, I would get anxious, and in that anxiety, I would leave my job.
Most of us want out of our uncomfortable feelings as soon as possible. We decide that a different job would be the answer and we convince ourselves that there would be better than here.
Intellectually, we know that the grass is not greener on the other side. However, our brains like to seek pleasure and avoid pain—all the time. We’ve got to notice the stories we tell ourselves. When we believe our thoughts that a different job would bring the passion we’re looking for—we quit.
Quitting becomes a habit.
Justifying it becomes a skill.
Many of us spin in this mind drama. Every time I quit or run away, it cost me money in the form of raises, promotions, more clients, and higher revenue.
Has this happened to you too? I’d like to invite you to quit quitting.
What if we modified things? What if we loved our jobs now—would that raise our skillsets and increase our opportunities? If not, at our current jobs, we’ll attract that next-level job right to us.
We’ll go to work from a space of freedom and choice versus fear, boredom, or anxiety. We’ll actually move toward a job or position that we truly desire, rather than a job that helps us escape our current one. There’s also a good chance we’ll find our purpose and learn how to cultivate passion and inspiration along the way.
We must approach our jobs like a mediation—commit to sit and stay. No matter what feelings come up, if we can’t manage the feelings of drudgery, boredom, or fear of taking risks in our current job, we will not have that skillset available when we do find our dream job or career.
I hate to break it to you, but even pursing your dreams will involve drudgery. And there will be fear and anxiety.
We might as well learn the skills to manage those feelings now, so we’ll be ready and equipped to manage them when we are up against pursuing our dreams.
When I quit quitting, I committed to one year at my job. I was 100 percent all in. I acted as if it was my dream job, and I allowed myself space to reevaluate after one year. Until then, I committed to myself and my job 100 percent.
As for discovering our purpose, we think it’s something we have to find—it’s actually something we choose to commit to.
When we show up with purpose—on purpose—we’ll find our purpose.
If we want a job we love, then we must love the job we have. If we want a job that makes us feel passionate, then we must be passionate about the work we do now, because we don’t attract what we want, we attract what we are.
Our thoughts set our intentions and drive our purpose.
Here are some thoughts that can have us loving our job and feeling passionate about the work we do:
How can I serve?
I like to offer value ahead of time.
Hard work feels good.
I provide value in perpetuity.
I like the challenge of learning to better.
I manage my time wisely.
Every day on the job is a chance to make a difference and a positive contribution.
Every day is a chance for me to learn and grow.
The more fun I have, the more money I make.
I learned that last one working as a waitress, a job many would think to be fairly meaningless or insignificant.
When we learn to manage our mind, love our jobs, and make it fun—we have a priceless skill.
And where else to become a professional at that then right now in our meaningless, mundane, or stressful job?
Does that skill even show up on a strength finder test?
If we learn to love our current situation, we will bring it with us big time in our next chosen occupation. No matter what job we have, that skill cannot be taken from us.
Loving our job is a direct result of learning to manage our mind. And, wherever we go, there we are! The opposite is also true if you hate your job.
So, more apropos job advice might be, “love what you do and the money will follow.”
This is your time to love your current situation! Work with me.
