“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –
— Confucius
I did not realize the truth of that statement and wisdom until today. About a month ago, I decided to quit my technical, well paying job and place my undivided attention to writing and reading.
It has been a month now; with days, I have spent wondering, if I did the wrong thing. Days wondering if I am working. Wondering when I should start doing what I set out to do. Suddenly, holding this incredible book that I was reading, “Winter Solistice” by Rosamunde Pilcher, sitting before the ocean, I realized, that, I was working.
The only difference was, it did not feel like work since I loved what I was doing so much and would do it anyway, even if, it was not the means for me to make a living.
Overwhelmed by the realization, I was thanking God and feeling grateful for this act of mercy on His part. I can actually do what I love to do and make a living at it also.
It only took me a whole year to decided to take the right step in the right direction, leaving behind the security of my old job. I was stunned at the possibilities and frightened at the failures. If I fail, it will be a glorious failure, having spent time expressing and reading and writing and living. If I succeed, then I have accomplished what everyone sets out to do, love what they do and do it well.
Nothing is more fulfilling than to love the job that you do knowing that you can do it with grace and abandon. Never had I stopped writing, never had I stopped reading. But, to read and write for a job, is more than I could have dreamed of.
Stephen King said that if you have no time to read, you have no skills to write. Your tools are broken. So, from that I learned that the wonderful time reading was actually honing up on my skills and techniques. God bless you, Mr. King. You are my hero.
Writing is not about equipment, writing is about the tools your have, your words and the ones you learn along the way. How you say them, convey them and execute them in ways to move and entice your audience.
When all is said and done, I want to go out of this world some day, saying that I have done the things I wanted to do and loved to do. I do not want to regret the days I have spent without trying at least to do it.