Finding what you love to do

It’s interesting how significant the right search term on a search engine can be. I searched for “what do you love” and on the first page I found a number of simply excellent articles on this topic that really help me find what I am looking for. And I am looking for more enthusiasm about what I do.. so that I can do it better, because “to do something well you have to like it”. This is such a crucial thing to grasp and research on a way towards success in life and happiness in general.

And I am glad to share the links to articles I’ve found and read here:

• “How to do what you love?” by Paul Graham, whose articles I’ve read before and have to say he never ceases to make a great impression on me.
• “How to Do What You Love” by Susan Basalla May from Chronicle.com
• “How to Find What You Love to Do” by Brian Kim of BrianKim.net self improvement site. And this last one actually offers a practical self by step advice on how to find pretty much exactly what you love to do. Now since Paul Graham warns that most people don’t really find an answer to this so quickly, which makes some sense to me, I’ll take this with a grain of salt. However, the steps are quite constructive and I believe may be a great major step towards finding that golden answer.

An interesting thing about this is when I observe the state in which I currently am with how these writers tend to characterize the state in which most people commonly are. It appears that I am lucky enough to already be a step or two ahead than many people, but I don’t want to claim this as a statement of superiority or anything like that, but rather something I should probably be grateful about (mostly to my parents, their friends and also in some significant part to the Libervis Network community).

I already do a lot of what I at least think is quite close to what I love to do. By being essentially self-employed on the web I can allow myself great freedom of exploration. And Libervis Network is one that has been set up in such a way to allow for great variety in what projects I can do as part of it, because whichever the more clear answer to the question of “what I love doing most” will be it probably wont contradict the fundamental values for which Libervis Network stands for.

And that is just plain awesome!

However, I have to admit that while I may be some steps ahead in that sense, I am some steps behind in another, that being my social life. Working on the web and therefore on the computer, this wonderful window to the world and universe at large, I pretty much “forgot” or “neglected” to live in the real world with real people more than I really have to. I am actually increasingly aware of this though and will be attempting to change this situation though. Oh yes I also realize that I failed at fullfilling one, to this related, part of my 2007 new year’s resolution: to find a girlfriend. I guess, there’s always next year! 2008 Ftw!

But it will be tricky. Among what motivates me to pursue the answer to this crucial question about myself is that I am finding the financial sustainability of Libervis Network (and hence myself) to still be quite shaky and unstable (all eggs in one basket sort of thing), but to just blindly go gold digging doesn’t seem to me like the best possible way. Among the best ways I am considering to differentiate my funding sources is to start new projects, and I don’t want to start projects which I will quickly lose enthusiasm about – hence the question: What do I really love to do? What will I succeed with the most?

Of course, another big motivation for this pursuit is the realization that I am, well, 23 years old and I can’t forever be just talking about how successful I will or should be in life and riding the waves I somehow created with Libervis so far (and then went struggling to keep myself motivated). I basically need a new wave, perhaps the most profound of all I managed to create so far! I need to rediscover myself again – before years pass by and I end up sitting alone in my room realizing that all this “exploration” I’ve done was actually just drifting… and that all what I’ve supposedly achieved was just luck (or momentary seizures of opportunities combined with crazy (perhaps even lazy) stubborness)..

So.. I will be taking some time soon to really complete the steps from the third article and think this stuff through. I will certainly blog about my discoveries.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Tags: Personal, Self improvement