Do You Really Like the “Work” of Your Job?

What are you doing? What do you REALLY want to be doing? If the answer isn’t the same, reevaluate.

People talk about being multi-hyphenates. This is common among artists. They call themselves one thing (some form of artist), but spend a majority of their time and energy doing another (something that makes more money than an artist). These people don’t focus on the art; they make the art a side hustle — even when they say it’s the art that drives them.

No one ever rose to the top of their craft by making it a side hustle. So why would you kid yourself? I ask… because this was me.

What did/do you want to do?

The common saying goes, “People who can’t do teach.” While that may be true for some, I have a theory it’s closer to, “Those who don’t want to do teach.”

A finance teacher can be very passionate about what she is teaching. She can know every theory and analysis, she could have read every book and article on finance and Wall Street. But she doesn’t want to be a wealth manager or stock broker. Why? Because that’s not what she loves. She loves knowing about it. She loves teaching it.

I have had this relationship with acting. I used to say that’s what I wanted most in life, to be a working actor. (Meaning, I would make a good living solely through acting.) That was what I considered to be my holy grail. It was a challenging goal to reach, and it was my purpose in life to reach it.

However, I also found that I could fall in and out of love with acting. Script analysis felt like homework. Preparation weighed on my mind like something I had to check off a to-do list. I got distracted easily. I took long breaks from acting classes. Finally I realized…

If you can fall out of love with something, that’s not your holy grail.

Frankly, people who want nothing more than to be an actor don’t dedicate their time to writing weekly blogs (unless maybe it’s a weekly acting blog). They act. They study the craft and better themselves.

This sent me into somewhat of an existential crisis, because I still loved the craft. Any time I got on set I was elated. I still…