Anyone else get this?

[flafly14]

I finished up this project at work the other day. Everything went well. The boss came up and gives me this big congratulations, "Great work, flafly14! Thanks for all you do around here! blah, blah blah" I smile and nod and pretend to be enthused, but in reality it does absolutely nothing for me. I really couldn't care less. My inside voice is saying "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just shut up and let me go back to my cubicle to die a slow death of office drudgery."

Now contrast that with a compliment I got earlier this evening...

I was out doing some casting practice. A pack of little gen Z kids goes by on their bmx bikes. They watch me for a minute or so and then take off. As they leave a couple of them give me a shout out "You're killing it, man!" and they flash me a couple of shaka signs. And I'm there thinking "Ya! Life is awesome! Those kids are awesome. My casting MUST be awesome." LOL I'm still happy about it a couple hours later. It's crazy.

Takeaways:
1. I need a new career.
2. I really just enjoy casting a fly rod. It's a real nice blend of art and science. And once in a while, I manage to do it halfway decently, and that feels good.
3. I'm going to actively look for someone this week, doing something they care about, and see if I can compliment them in such a way that it'll affect them like those little zoomers did for me.

 

[Ard]

Having a job or profession that is rewarding is not the easiest thing to find in life, I've had a few. I became good at everything I undertook but in the end I did it all for money so where was the love?

I have only 1 takeaway from your post and it's quite telling. I have no idea what "shaka signs" are. It's possible I am way out of touch but I plan on going up by the road tomorrow and doing some casting.

Your ambition to find someone to compliment in the future seems like a nice thing to think of doing maybe I'll try that too.

Ard

 

[el jefe]

Someone famously once said, "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." They were right.

 

[gpwhitejr]

I know what you mean. I am self employed so I don't get any work feedback. But I have had two such incidents.

-I once built a Shaker style sofa table that I was very happy with as a hobbyist woodworker. Some time later we were having a wood floor put in our dining room, and the flooring guy commented on how nice a table it was. I thanked him and told him I had made it myself. He looked at it again for a moment and said "If you make me a table like that I will do your floor for free." Bowled me over (after all, this guy is a professional in a wood related business). Ultimately I had to decline, I can't stick to a production schedule.

-My daughter got married a couple of days ago and I had agreed to put on a little fireworks show. I did months of research, spent a fair amount of money, and spent many hours constructing the whole setup. I think some people (at least those who didn't know me and how I approach things) expected a few bottle rockets and some Roman candles, and they were blown away (don't worry, I don't mean that literally). After the finale was finished, I heard over a hundred people chanting my name. I am still feeling a buzz from that. (Even better, I overheard one guest, as he was putting his kids in the car, say "That was better than our town fireworks.")

 

[gpwhitejr]

Someone famously once said, "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." They were right.

In general I guess that is true, but on the other hand I think there is the potential to turn something you love into something you don't. I enjoy woodworking, for example, at my own pace, when I am in the mood, making things I want to make. If I had to do it for a living, sticking to a schedule, meeting other people's demands, I fear that it would not be fun anymore.

 

[jangles]

el jefe , that saying is right on but there is a draw back to it . I love sleeping and do it a lot but I had to go on Welfare to afford it ! lol

 

[el jefe]

I think you guys missed my meaning. Stated another way, "If you do what you love, you won't work a day in your life, because you won't have job!" If I did what I loved, it sure as heck wouldn't be working.

 

[silver creek]

I think I was very lucky. Other than being on call for emergencies, I loved my work and the people I worked with.

 

[mtboiler]

I spent 20 years in straight commission sales. I made good money...worked 50 plus hours a week, traveled a lot, got all kinds of hotel and airline perks, created a nice retirement plan and gained 60 pounds, could barely walk more than a mile or two and was seriously out of shape but could hire a guide to float me down a river at will and probably fished 15 days a year.
Now, I work 4 days a week in a retail store selling fishing and fly fishing gear, plus referee about 200 games a year for soccer and basketball. I can hike 3 miles with a half mile elevation gain with my packraft on my back in a hour. I fish 90 plus days a year with a fly rod in my hand, tie all of my own flies, cannot afford a guide, but have my own raft and packraft!
Happiness is not money, or a cublical with a phone. Happiness to me is when you are doing what you want to do and making it work. Some people say happiness is doing what they love but most never find that. Some people say happiness is make a lot of money. The reality is happiness is what you make it...and how you make it

 

[Ard]

Someone famously once said, "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." They were right.

In some aspects I did this and got away with it. I resigned a position in 1988 that I had held for 15 years. After that day I vowed that I would never have another "Job".

I did work and on 2 occasions I went on a payroll but those were designated by a personal service contract and had arranged salaries. Even considering those 2 agreements I managed since age 35 to do what I love. There were contract jobs involved but everything I did was done for 2 very specific goals. One was to keep a roof over my head and the other was to have the freedom to travel and fish as much as I could afford to do.

My program isn't for everyone but for going on 35 years now it worked for me

 

[scotty macfly]

I think you guys missed my meaning. Stated another way, "If you do what you love, you won't work a day in your life, because you won't have job!" If I did what I loved, it sure as heck wouldn't be working.

I tried working once, but it didn't work out. So I fish.

 

[ia_trouter]

I was so excited to see this thread! I get to vent my spleen and as an added bonus Ard, Unknownflyman and my wife are spared from listening to me biiitch today. I am done with the military and my civilian GOV job. I'll be more than fine in a few years but I am three years away from my retirement money pensions without heavy tax penalty. So listen to this tale of woe. If it doesn't bring you to tears you have no heart lol....

So about a year ago I decide I better pick up some extra income. My back is junk and I am 57 so I'm not exactly highly sought after. So I get this part-time job at Home Depot and just a couple months later a fulltime job comes up as a Millworker (Seller of fancy custom doors and windows to the layman). My predecessor was fired for making crazy amounts of errors. Fulltime jobs are coveted in retail because they have to pay some benefits I don't really need. Big box stores staff their stores with part-timers. My good fortune is hard to imagine. Nobody wants any part of this position and now I understand why.

Fast forward to last week. Store has been missing goal by $20K a week for six weeks. Mangers are truly scared somebody will get fired. My dept goal is usually about $12K a week this time of year. 30% gross margin give or take if you care to do the math. We usually just make it or fall a little short with very slow store traffic. I had some new house projects working and things fell into place. I threw down $40K in sales in four days. More than $1000/HR in sales. Pretty sure I covered my $12.50 wage. But wait I had worked 4HRs OT making this happen so they asked me to come in late last day of week to kill my outrageous overtime debt. I don't even want OT but we are talking about less than $80. Now I am behind meeting customers needs but I get completely it now. Time to go sell tires or something else where the stress matches the wage.

 

[flafly14]

Work...the problem is the I'm actually very good at what I do (IT stuff), and I make decent money doing it. It's the golden handcuffs. I bet if I could just get myself fired, that I'd be in a better spot within 2 years. Funny thing is all my coworkers marvel that I've survived the HR department for so long. In reality I'd love to do something else, but I've got family members depending on me, so it would just be stupid to start over doing something else. Too much risk. Sometimes I think you just gotta show your kids that life isn't just about what you want to do. Good news is the kids are getting ready to move out and shouldn't be needing so much from me in the next few years. Plus I got myself out of debt. So the light at the end of the tunnel is definitely coming up.

Until then...it's amazing how much you can endure if you can just catch a little break from it all every day. A good hard workout. An hour at the gun range or on the boat. 30 minutes casting a fly rod. If I can get any of those things everyday, then I can put up with a whole lot of office work without completely losing my mind. Life is actually pretty good.

 

[ia_trouter]

If you are good at whatever you do moving on usually pays off soon enough but there is often short-term pain. Most just remain a little too long and endure.

 

[flafly14]

Moving on from one job to the next within the same basic field is one thing. Completely agree with you there. But moving from IT to gunsmithing would be another story. I won't risk it. If I was alone I would. But not with dependents.

 

[ia_trouter]

Moving on from one job to the next within the same basic field is one thing. Completely agree with you there. But moving from IT to gunsmithing would be another story. I won't risk it. If I was alone I would. But not with dependents.

I did the same job for 30 years because it was my comfort zone.

 

[mjkirshner]

I like to cook, and I'm pretty sue that I'm pretty good at it. My wife (as of two days ago) has lived with me for five years, and has cooked dinner three times...and we are both good with thst. A while back, I had a friend over for dinner and I made Thai green curry, which includes green bell peppers. Halfway through dinner, Bob said, you know, I hate green peppers, but I'm really enjoying these. I still remember that compliment. My stepson (also as of two dsys ago) comes home from school and always compliments my meals...but then I remember that he's a college kid who will eat almost anything, so it doesn't count...lol

 

[karstopo]

I was a trained assassin for many years. After narrowly escaping that, I had 16,000 living things under my care and tried very hard to keep them all alive. I pushed tons of heavy metal and searched out scraps of plastic to re-sell. Sold water to folks that already had plenty. Now, I put my fingers on leaky roofs and pipes and hope someone will pay me for it.

Fishing and casting is fun, but I generally can’t stand fishing with strangers so that’s probably not a good recipe for making a living at that. Don’t really know what’s coming next, my body is generally disintegrating and I’ll be mostly titanium and plastic before it’s all over.

 

[weiliwen]

*Deleted Post*

 

[weiliwen]

Someone famously once said, "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." They were right.

I believe that was Julia Child.

From my perspective, there are two ways to look at it. The first one is mentioned above - find a job so fulfilling that the working hours pass by like minutes, and you are fascinated by what you are doing.

That's probably about 4% of the population

The other way is to look at it as something that must be endured so that you can live in a good home, pay for food and clothing and maybe even college for your kids. In other words, find that satisfaction outside of work. I'll admit that's more like me. I will be so immodest as to say that I am pretty good at what I do (international transport & logistics) and make pretty good money, and, even at 60 years old, I have the skill set that would allow me to get another similar job quickly. I do like the intricacies of international trade, but I can't say I love it. At work, I'm satisfied that I have a good boss, good team to work with, good karma company that helps people (ie.,not selling $10,000 vials of medicine just because I can extract that profit). It could (and has been) a lot worse.

but I work to live, I don't live to work.