Have you ever wondered if your approach to work is more of “do what you love” or “love what you do”?

There is a subtle difference between them that isn’t subtle anymore once you stepped into it.

One way to look at the concept of “doing what you love” is to assume that the result of doing your work is to feel happy, feel rewarded for what you did, or be acknowledged by your peers. It thus might be a way to invest oneself into one’s work to receive a reward. Not necessarily money or some kind of gadget, most probably something way more personal you’d like to receive from your peers.

The idea of “loving what you do” takes a different approach. It is an investment into one’s activities or actions that doesn’t expect anything. It is an approach that brings energy to what you do simply because you care or are interested in what you do. Reward in this case is independent of work and not a reason to invest oneself in it.

Should you wonder, there are ways to look out for the later approach.

Think for example about situations in which after some moments of hesitation or resistance you’ve found yourself immersed in what you were doing. Or take the situations in which you’ve been asking yourself some questions, have been intrigued by something to then find yourself researching that information while forgetting the time. And no, I don’t mean simply watching one YouTube video after the other just because they suggested another one that might be of interest to you.

What I mean is coming out of having worked and feeling changed or enriched.

Waiting for passion to appear may be a recipe for never finding it.

Banging your head against the wall on those occasions where it doesn’t work to love what you do is also a recipe for disaster. You may simply not have enough energy on that day. However, if it is every day, you may want to try something else.