The Missing Link To This Sage Old Advice

Everyone has heard this advice. It may be sitting in your subconscious, waiting for the opportune moment to come out and leave you feeling frustrated or hopeless. You'll feel like giving up, or changing your direction in a big way, for the fourth time this year. As New Years arrives, this advice will surely be on everyone's mind.

What is this timeless, wise, all-mighty advice that I'm referring to? What is this pearl of genius that so many live and die by?

"Do what you love."

Oh, it sounds so good! It leaves you feeling warm and cozy. It gives you a jolt of motivation to quit everything and just do what you love doing all day everyday.

Doesn't that sound nice? Just do what you love to do, don't deal with the bullshit. It sounds nice to me. But there is a missing part. This part doesn't sound as good, but it's oh so important.

"Do what you love long-term."

Isn't this the same thing? Not quite.

Here's the brutal truth, doing what you love to do right now will probably not lead you to your dreams. The keywords are "right now". I say "probably", because nothing is black and white, but if you're human and fall prey to simple pleasures, those pleasures will most likely not lead you to where you want to go.

For example, I love watching good movies. It feels so good to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. I don't have to think all that much. It takes me away from the drama in my life and let's me escape into another world. It's great fun. But, would I love the idea of me being a movie-watcher? Someone that watches movies all day doesn't have a great ring to it. In no way shape or form can I see how that would lead me to my dreams.

How bout a more practical example, I love programming. It's really fun to build programs from scratch and instantly see them do things far better than I could do myself. It's not always a blast of course, but for the most part, It's safe to say that I love to program. If I programmed all day every day, would that lead me to my dreams? I would write code, edit, debug, test and repeat. My dream is not to be the world's best programmer. As much as I love to program, even the idea of being the highest paid programmer at Google or Amazon just doesn't do it for me.

Loving what you do long-term rather than short-term completely flips this around. This means you'll spend your days doing things you don't want to do.

I don't like typing info from business cards into my CRM. It just ain't fun. It's time consuming, mindless and repetitive. However, I've met so many great people because I took the time to store their info and follow up with them. This has led to great business, great friendships and great experiences.

I also don't like driving or taking public transportation to get to meetings or events. To be honest, I can't effing stand it! I spend on average 15-20% of my day sitting on a bus, train, or dying slowly in bumper-to-bumper traffic (I go to a lot of meetings and events). If I delay this aggravating process, what happens? I'll be late to business meetings or I'll miss out on crucial events.

Here are some other things I don't really like doing:

• Going to the gym
• Taking online courses
• Cold-calling
• Being vulnerable to rejection
• Project management
• Starting things (like this damn article!)

I don't enjoy doing these things and yet, over time, they yield the best results. They bring me closer to my goals and dreams. That's why I spend most of my time on them.

When you ask me if I love what I do?

Without skipping a beat, "Of course I do."

Why is that? When I think about what I do, I think about where I'm going. I don't think about what I did that morning, I think about my long-term dreams and where I'm headed. That gets me pumped.

I know in my gut that these activities will lead me to my dreams, and that's why I "love" them. Also, they have this weird way of feeling really good after doing them. It tricks your brain into thinking they were more fun than they were.

Maybe you already know this, and I'm only coming to understand this concept far too late. All I know is that this mind-set shift really helps me to keep trucking along.

I'll leave you with a quote from Churchill that I'm certain you've already heard but who really gives a damn!

If you're going through hell, keep going.

Ahhh, now that's more like it!