While time flies in your work day, what happens when you start spending a sizeable amount of the rest of your hours at it too? How big of a loss is the outside world... really? This is the final part, in a three-part article exploring some of my thoughts, experiences (and coping strategies) related to the dynamics involved in loving what you do.

Paying attention.

When I notice myself getting super immersed in the work, I feel surprised, and stoked, but also a little wary. Because that scanning-bliss moment was kind of like me and ‘the work’ having a good time together even though we were just doing the dishes. (Sweet, but a little freaky.) Or maybe even cutting each other’s hair with a pudding bowl. (Handy, but "let's never speak of this to anyone", y'know?) And while I do want to harness it (and did), catching this feeling also lets me know I probably need to make sure I have penciled in time for other things in the near future. If not, it means I’m likely to get too involved in what I'm doing, focus on it to the exclusion of other elements of my life, and end up resenting it later through a situation of my own making. I don’t want my work to be all that I do, or all that I am, even if I do enjoy it. I want it to be one of many modes of expression for my varied ideas, visions and experiences.

Photo: From the 1999 comedy, "Office Space".

Achieving balance and flow.

I used to say I’d never want a desk job, I wanted something creative (and therefore non-officey). Yeah so I hadn’t really considered the range of creative job options too well, and I may have also been a little furniture-biased. But now I create quite often, (though not always) at a desk, and it actually feels good. So I think I ought to amend that thought to something like: I’d never want to sit at a desk (or anywhere for that matter) to do a job I didn’t enjoy. I figure I don’t feel ball-and-chained to it for two reasons - I enjoy what I do, and I enjoy my time away. Each feeds the other, and through their delicate interrelation - their balance and flow, a harmony of sorts is achieved. So I guess like any relationship, it’s about finding one where you have oodles of fun together, and can also be further enlivened by your time apart.

You get out what you put in.

When you really love what you do, sometimes work - doesn't feel like “work”. Simply put, (as Tiki sang with Salmonella Dub) "we do it for the love of it". Because of this dynamic, we sometimes don't notice until too late that "our love" is unwittingly monopolising our time and focus, that is, until everything else has fallen neglected by the wayside, waiting to be allocated time and attention at some nebulous "later on" point. The result is often that we're left feeling betrayed by, and rather cold for the one thing that's left; the work. In simple terms it robbed us, and now we've lost the jones for it altogether - welcome to burnout. Trying to achieve some balance and flow before we get too swept off our feet, is like taking out essential insurance, not just on our "outside-work life", but also on our productivity mojos. It’s about remembering to balance and allocate energy and time to the areas and the things aside from our work (or our field altogether), that feed the soul, and then being open to letting their influence and inspiration flow back into our work too.

Perhaps we just need to become equally enamoured with (and thankful for) all that is not the work we love, for the equally rich stimulation that it can bring us. Now seems as good a time as any to start, at least for me - I mean there's a glorious summer waiting outside my office right now, and an overgrown garden romping through it - so I think I'll pen a little time with each soon - but first, I just gotta finish up this thing I've been working on...

If you missed part two of this article, click here to read it.
If you missed both earlier parts, click here to read it from the start.

These are just some of my thoughts, experiences (and coping strategies) related to the dynamics involved in loving what you do. The beast of creating (art or ideas or businesses, or anything else for that matter), brings with it a different wrangling experience for everyone - and equally varied tricks to harness it, so I’d be interested to hear yours. What kinds of ways do you refuel the inspiration and motivation banks (besides work)? How obsessively immersed in what you do have you become, or caught yourself at times? Do you ever get away completely, and how do you make the break? Do usually you manage to seek balance before some other area of your life becomes undernourished? And what serendipitous outside influences have flowed back into your work once you returned to it? Just sign in to comment.

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