Finding what you love can come in many many ways.

For example, you might need to broaden your thinking a bit on what you would actually love to do because your current view of life is too constricting. For example, are you open to new and old hobbies like flying a kite, reading ancient Roman history, picking up the shamisen (three stringed Japanese “guitar”)? What about for work? Can you allow yourself to see things like remote work, more time off, higher or lower pay, different benefit structure, fully load drink/snack bar, or other aspects of a workplace or are you stuck on what you’re used to? What if you had a job opportunity that had an amazing perk you’ve never thought about before but you wouldn’t consider unless you could reflect on it as a trade off for __________?

Going back to the shamisen, here’s a clip to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgN_xIHqLUA

Were you able to enjoy the subtlety and different cultural style or was it weird and “not my style”? Did you hear monotony or beauty?

Exploring requires a lot of brain power, openness to new — and opposing! — ideas, and a ton of dead ends. We frequently have to climb one pass and descend into the valley to climb the next one. Then we can see the grander picture.

It’s simple to intellectually assent to this goal, but to hastily descend on a mountain bike down the rutted, rocky, and washed out trail, follow the river, and then ascend back up in first or second gear constitutes physical exertion. Exploring is fun in concept, truly difficult and a very sweaty mess in practice.

But man, the views are worth it. So are the work perks — and discovering the shamisen.