I Am Tired of the Spell Called "Do What You Love"
A Video That Left a Strange Feeling
Today, I was casually watching YouTube.
One of the recommended videos was about someone who had wanted to make farming their job.
I do not know the details. But apparently, even though they had started farming because they loved it, they could not make a living from it and eventually had to move on to another job.
They looked frustrated.
As I watched the video, I felt something I could not quite put into words.
That is because I have always felt a strange discomfort with the phrase “do what you love.”
The Popularity of a Dangerous Phrase
In Japan, this phrase is unusually popular.
It appears everywhere, from elementary school moral education classes to self-help books, social media, and highly motivated influencers.
“Turn what you love into your job.”
“Find what you really want to do.”
“You only live once.”
The message makes it sound as if work itself is life.
But if you think about it calmly, I believe it is a rather dangerous idea.
I Did Not Become an Engineer Because It Was My Childhood Dream
I work as an IT engineer.
But I did not grow up dreaming of becoming a programmer.
What I actually admired was physics.
There was a time when I felt a sense of romance in things like space and quantum mechanics.
But reality is harsh.
You have to eat.
So I used the skills I had at hand and chose the path that seemed most efficient for making a living.
That path was IT.
There is nothing very dreamy about that.
Still, thanks to that choice, I have been able to make a living for nearly 30 years.
If I had taken the spell “unless you do what you love for work, your life is a failure” seriously back then, I do not know where I would be now.
The Success Stories Are Just the Visible Ones
Of course, there are exceptions.
Some people miraculously find that what they love and what they do for work are the same thing, and they become extremely successful.
A baseball-loving child may become a professional baseball player. A game lover may build a game company.
But those stories stand out because they become news.
The countless failures that never become news quietly disappear.
It is like looking only at lottery winners and saying, “All right, I will bet all my savings too.”
The odds are not exactly favorable.
Good Enough May Be the Happiest Place
For most people, I suspect the happiest job is something more like this:
- You are reasonably good at it
- There is reasonable demand for it
- It pays reasonably well
Work is work.
Hobbies are hobbies.
Life is life.
There is no need to merge everything into one thing.
It is not rare for people to start hating the very thing they once loved after turning it into a job.
Someone who loved fishing may work at a fishing supply store and come to dislike fishing. Someone who loved games may enter the game industry and no longer want to look at games at all.
There is also a valid choice in not making something you love into a job precisely so you can protect that love.
Bills Come Before Ideals
Thinking about these things, I watched the farming video until the end.
The comment section was full of encouraging words.
“Keep chasing your dream!”
“Do not give up!”
I think those are admirable things to say.
But if it were me, I would say this:
“If it looks impossible, you may be better off getting a regular job.”
Dreams matter, but rent matters more.
In life, there are bills that have to be paid before ideals can be pursued.
In the end, “do what you love” sounds cool when successful people say it after the fact. But as advice for people who are still choosing how to live, it is a little too dangerous.
So today, once again, I will do my IT work, which I do not particularly love.
Then I will use the money I earn to buy books, travel, and watch YouTube.
When I think about it, I did not become a physicist, but I can still enjoy the things I love in a perfectly ordinary way.
Perhaps “support what you love with your job” is a far more reproducible life strategy than “turn what you love into your job.”