Words to live by

I was reflecting today on my life, my job, my finances… you know, all that crap that you have to reflect upon when you are very obviously coming up on that time when you need to make a move, but you aren’t quite sure what. As I dusted out the cobwebs of my brain searching for some lived experience that might help me to focus my thoughts, I stumbled across some of the best advice that has ever been given to me. Generally, when people talk about the best advice they have ever received, they muse fondly about some patronly old person that guided them through rough times– grand-dad, professor whats-his-name, Mother Theresa, you know the deal. My advice was no different. I too, received these words of wisdom from a patron– not mine, but rather that of a college friend of mine– at a party at which we had only just met and were both quite drunk. In addition to being someone’s father, he was also uncharacteristically old for someone with a daughter of her age. Therefore, his advice is totally solid.

I was grumping about how I was a year out of school, and couldn’t find a job, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. His response was something like this (cut me some slack, as I was impaired by alcohol):

“Zorak, listen. You don’t want a job. Jobs are work, and work sucks. I myself have never worked a day in my life. Every morning I wake up, go to the office, sit in my big, poofy chair, and think to myself, ‘my god! These people actually pay me to do this!’ This is the goal. Forget about all of the peripheral stuff. Do what you want. You’ll find a way to make it work.”

This sounds like easy advice, but it’s totally not. “Do what you want.” What is that exactly?