this photo is of the OKC skyline on our way home the other day. i kind of like how there aren’t a ton of tall buildings and condos clustered together. downtown is relatively short. maybe that’s the way it has to be in Tornado alley.
but i digress. i’m leaving for the clinic in 7 minutes and i don’t really want to go.
Doing what you love should be a good thing, right? Who hasn’t dreamed of taking their hobby and turning it into their business? But what happens when that act of joy becomes the thing you wake up to every morning—the thing you have to do? Or, even worse, the thing you dread doing?
Our hobbies are hobbies because we enjoy doing them. If ever that changes we give them up and go on to something else. But what to do when the hobby becomes a responsibility? How do you cope when your joy becomes your job? How do you stay inspired, stay creative, how do you keep up the momentum?
~ Tea & Cookies via Col
i love learning and i love medicine.
while i don’t need to stay inspired or creative to do either of those things, i understand the dread and burnout. i was falling over myself excited to PRE-READ anatomy textbooks the summer before i started MUA. i bounded out of bed at 4am, excited at all the NEW THINGS i would learn that day. sure, class was always sort of boring because i didn’t get to set the pace, but i was LEARNING. flashcards AWESOME. textbooks smell so GOOD.
and now, 5am feels earlier than it should. my gas-pedal foot drags a little as i hit the interstate each morning. i am eager to leave the clinic at the end of the day. i think about doing things that are totally ANTI-learning, like watching TV for more 30 minutes at a time.
i have been asked before if i would ever try to “go pro” in photography and make a job out of something i love to do. it’s a popular route with a few Flickr folks in our economically down-trodden depression-recession society. my answer was always a resounding “no.” to back it up, i would quote the study i read in one of my undergrad psychology classes: they rewarded kids (with stickers or whatever) for colouring and found that with the reward in place, kids actually colored less.
and now i went and turned my very favourite hobby of reading and learning into a job. i don’t want a sticker. i just want to colour for the sake of colouring.
more Tea & Cookies (because i don’t have a conclusion or answers and don’t expect one to magically appear):
I’m not entirely sure, I’m trying to figure it out. The more writing becomes my work, the more arduous it sometimes feels. I’m not sure how to retain that bit of wonder that made it so special in the first place. I don’t want it to become the thing I dread. When I first started writing about food it felt dizzying, thrilling, like falling in love. Now I’m afraid I’ve hit the seven-year itch.
So perhaps you could do me a favor, if you don’t mind. I’d love to hear about what you do that you love—be it hobby, job, or dream—and how you keep the spark alive. Whether it’s cooking, writing, a relationship, or underwater basket weaving—do you ever run out of steam with the things you love? What do you do to avoid/get over the burnout? Do you take a break or plow through? Is it better to churn out something uninspired, or wait for inspiration to strike? Have you taken a pleasure and turned it into a job? (and how did that work for you?). You can even tell me what you’d like to see on this site. I’d love to hear. These days I’m looking for inspiration.
