Do What You Love

Quite a number of people have recently been asking my advice on what they should do with their lives - some of them even break down in tears just trying to put into words how much of a burden it is to live in the present, how painful it is just to go through a single day doing something you know you don't want to do. How they hate their jobs, their lifestyles, their lives.

It's all really very sad. I don't know why they think I'm qualified to throw in my two cents' worth (unless perhaps they saw that Marie Claire Philippines feature) but I believe I now have an answer to anyone who may ask me the same thing again. And that is:

"Do what you love."

Plain and simple as that. Do what you love. Four words couldn't be any clearer. Do What You Love. Do - don't just dream, don't just draw up plans, but DO. Do what YOU want to do. And do what you LOVE. Not what you were brought up to believe that you should be doing, or what you may have a passing interest in right now, but what you LOVE.

What is the one thing - actually, as an exercise in life's focus, my "son" Jeryc once asked us to pick three things - you most love doing in the world? The thing you'd rather be doing when you find your knees buckling under the pressure of work you find no joy in. The thing that you could do in a state in exhaustion and still manage to smile about. The thing that gets you up early in the morning even though it's already kept you up all through the night. The thing that you know you're passionate about, because doing it gives you so much satisfaction, so much joy.

That's the thing you love. That's what you should be doing. Life on earth is too valuable to be doing anything else than pursuing one's passion.

But what about my rent, you may ask. What about my future, my kids' education, my loans, my daily expenses? What about the practical details of life?

Here's the second part of my "theory." Do whatever it takes to be able to do what you love.

If that means working at a job you don't particularly enjoy, then so be it. If that means long hours of practicing 'til you get things perfect, then so be it. If that means sacrificing comfort and safety and much-needed sleep, then so be it. Do whatever it takes to be able to do what you love.

I hit upon this realization in a recent conversation with my good friend Robbie G, a very talented and well-loved theater professional. He'd been sleepless for a few nights, not just because his Mom had recently passed on and he was attending to the many details of her funeral and honorings, but because he also had professional video production deadlines to meet - death in the family or no. In the midst of all this bustle, I asked him, "so is this (event and production) business your day job now?" And Robbie, bless his heart, drew his tired self up, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "No, theater is still, and always will be, my day job. This just lets me keep my day job."

Do whatever it takes to be able to do what you love. And then do it.

Two simple tenets in determining what we should be doing with our lives. After all, what we love doing was planted in our hearts by Someone who resides in our deepest desires.

Amen? Amen.