If You Love What You Do, You'll Never Work a Day

"If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life."

But what if what you love if aimless wandering and hobbying? That ancient Chinese proverb meant to guide individuals to careers they're passionate about leaves a curious twinge in my temple. "But I want to do -everything." 

At 10am Friday morning I rolled out of bed to take a managerial accounting test then into an Uber to the Chattanooga airport. Atlanta, then Baltimore then Washington DC for four days to visit old friends flitting around town -and briefly out of state- seeing the peculiarities of the Capitol. Then back to Baltimore, Atlanta, home to Chattanooga and immediately down to Birmingham to see a beau -enjoy the food and drink and company whilst compiling more accounting into my brain, reading for a book club and planning another book club.

Am I not working or am I always working? The statement so often pertains to jobs as if there aren't countless hours available to you to do things outside of your job. I'm still gunning for the New Zealanders standard 7-weeks a year of vacation time, but facing the prospect of a standard 40-hour a week workweek, I ponder how much time is available to explore hobbies. With school winding down and me close to a Master, I'll once again have time available. My current disruptive schedule removes good hobby time instead filled with work and school until the magical 7-day off stretch I pack with my most favorite hobby of travel. 

And yet, many hobbies I crave demand more deliberate time and effort than the once-a-month attention I can currently grant. Hobbies like French and German which require constant practice. Hobbies like gardening which though not requiring daily care, do require a watchful eye and maintenance. Writing this -hopefully more to my goal of once a week than my bare minimum allowed of once a month. Figuring out damnable wine cultural and seeking the elusive terrior as described in the fabulous Liquid Memory I just finished. Brewing myself. Making obsessive tincture and extraction experiments -the one thing which will make me bend to purchase a Keurig. Becoming a certifiable herbalist as I've dreamed. Becoming a better leader and more community active.

I suppose this is now turning into my list of wants rather than a fruitful discussion about the time and capability we possess to become whatever we want to be. Of course, as I'm currently concerned, so many distractions exist. A pop culture junkie, I watch the playful stories of cinema as I do so like stories. Stories of others inform us of worlds outside ourselves. Aside from entertainment, stories expand your life experience via bearing witness to another, an important tactic in building empathy. And yet, they're easy to get lost in to the point you neglect your own story. Or the ever present and tangible social media especially now in trying political times providing hourly distraction and enragement. It's okay to be angry in a moment; it's not okay to lose focus because of it.

So, like all the good hipsters, I must learn to be mindful of my time. After the chaos of my current schedule ends to be replaced with monotonous 9 to 5, my greatest fear in life, I must be better at being mindful and constructive with my time. Not to deliberately plan every waking moment. No, that would be equally as fearful. Allow for some give and take with time and activities, but be wary of letting moments go to waste