What’s the Secret of Doing the Work of Your Dreams?

What’s a dream job? Does it even exist?

In my last entry for Medium Writers Challenge, welcome to my wild roller coaster of a ride as I try to solve the puzzle of what’s a dream job and how you even find it. So strap on and enjoy the ride.

What I’d known, for the longest time ever, and before worrying about your screen time was even a thing, was that I didn’t want to sit at a computer in an office cubicle all day.

This meant that most corporate jobs were not on my list of a dream career. The option I settled on was being a doctor, which didn’t work out quite as well as I’d assumed, but is still going okay.

Then, as a second year medicine student, I discovered the world of blogging and online businesses. As a naturally entrepreneurial spirit, this prospect was immensely exciting for me.

I was soon talking like the digital nomads and entrepreneurs of the world, realizing how bad a 9 to 5 system of a job is and how archaic even, because it was derived from the days of working in a factory. I also realized that this system is not at all suited to the creative jobs of today, because you simply cannot work at your best or be in a flow state for eight hours straight.

So a 9 to 5 was definitely out. Being your own boss was the way to go!

Until it wasn’t.

Be your own boss

Not everyone needs to change the world.

As time went by, I began seeing the flaws of the entrepreneurial model too. You can maybe dismiss that as I was (am) not a successful entrepreneur by any means, but then you will still have to deal with the voices of those who made it but didn’t like it, with some of them even going back to the dreaded nine to five, and this time by choice.

The thing is, not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Not everyone has the will to be their own boss or build their own thing and deal with all the mess that comes along with it. Not everyone needs to change the world. And unlike the ways they make it seem like THE thing, not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur.

While the digital nomads and entrepreneurs shun the 9 to 5, they often forget that their own lifestyle is enabled by these same 9–5ers, be it the employees at their company, people in the banks they draw their checks from, or the many, many industries one needs to survive in the modern world.

Long story short, it looks like we have just glorified the world of entrepreneurs, the way we used to glorify the corporate jobs a few years back. Nothing has really changed, and we have just replaced a 9 to 5 with entrepreneurship as the newest, super-hyped career, while ignoring all the flaws and limitations of the model.

So this is out as the dream job. What’s next?

Follow your passion

But what is your passion, and how do you find it anyway?

There was a point when I’d been trying to figure out answers to these questions, not for myself, but more like for others, so no one’s stuck in a job they hate.

My research took a different turn when my own life changed as I realized that passion does not equal your interests in life.

I’d taken medicine because I loved studying it, but I was now realizing that loving the subjects isn’t the same as loving the job. I’d taken blogging because I loved writing, but I was realizing that I loved doing it for fun rather than being forced into it every single day, often in topics that I may not even be passionate about.

I also came to know that your passions can change with time. I used to dismiss this thinking it was just me as there are so many things I want to learn and do, but turns out, it’s everyone!

The conclusion was that passion is not a reliable indicator of what you should be doing as your job because first, it can change over time, second, you may only enjoy your passion as a hobby as opposed to a job and third, the parts that you are passionate about may not be the same parts that you have to perform at the job on a day to day basis.

So what’s the solution here?

The other P

During my researches into figuring out your passion, I’d occasionally come across blogs that said something along the lines of ‘passion is overrated’ or ‘don’t follow your passion, follow your purpose instead’.

I always dismissed these statements because I knew that there was a way to find a job you love and which you enjoy all the time.

As you might guess, I still had a lot of maturing to do.

Apart from this, what I wouldn’t admit at the time was that I was somewhat scared of the word ‘purpose’. This because I wanted clear, solvable problems in my life (which was the main reason I decided not to be a researcher and dedicate my whole life to an obscure discovery). But the only things I could think of were these big, unsolvable problems like how do you end the evil in this world?!

My knowledge of history and my ability to find the bigger patterns in life told me that solving a problem like that can take centuries, and even then it won't take long before humans are back to their old, erring ways. I didn’t want my whole life to be spent embroiled in a war like that, so I stayed clear of it.

However, after all my realizations regarding how following your passion can be flawed, I found myself considering taking on a ‘purpose’. I started thinking of all these big issues that I cared about, and that made me think of the smaller but related issues that were actually solvable.

So I ended up going from someone who used to marvel at the way people come up with all these ideas, like how you can get a taxi from an app, to actually brainstorming those ideas myself. The pursuit of an impossible purpose paradoxically led me to what was more possible.

The end

That’s where I am at right now, chasing every problem that I feel I am passionate about solving and trying to come up with ideas to solve it.

Does that mean I have it all figured out now, and that purpose is the secret of a dream job? Yes and no.

You see, just like the part about passion, and just like life actually, you may not like all the parts of a job that you believe you have a purpose in. Or not all the things you do at your job may be about fulfilling your unique purpose. Sometimes, your job may be an entirely different thing from what drives your purpose, and that’s perfectly okay too.

This also brings me to the big question of how do you even find your purpose. I don’t want you to be spending the next ten years pondering this, so I will just say: Focus on helping people.

This is THE thing that separates your passion from your purpose. A passion is about you, which is why it may not last, but a purpose is for others, which is why it does last.

So wherever you are and whatever you are doing, start focusing on how you can use your work to help others. Helping others at your current job may not be your true purpose, but it sure will help you come closer to it.

And if your job just sucks and you're doing it because you have to pay the bills, then maybe that can be your purpose for a while — being able to sustain you and your loved ones while you figure your life out.

What’s your journey been like trying to figure out your dream job? I’d love to know!