Passion

[CroMagna]

I read somewhere that if you do exactly what it is you love the most for money, you'll enjoy it less because your brain will think you're just doing it for the money.  Have you heard of this phenomenon?

Edited August 9, 2018 by CroMagna

[YaNanNallari]

I mean it's true. If you do what you want and what you want is money, you'll be happy. If you do what you want and it's not just money, you will be unhappier with doing it for just money.

[martin_malin]

I think this situation arises a lot when you're not free to be fully authentic (eg: artists who make a living off Fiverrr). 

[St Clair]

Yeah I've experienced this phenomenon first hand.

 

The first time I started busking my music on the street, it was epic, and I had a blast. I made about $75 buckas, and I was absolutely stoked to be earning this much money from just 1 hour of sharing my own music. "My music makes money, yay!" I said as I eagerly collected all the coins.

So I went out busking the next day, almost smirking as I played through my whole repertoire. I made $5. I was wondering what the heck went wrong? Did nobody care about my music this time? I was annoyed and upset.. 

Actually, this mindset was fundamentally flawed. I was playing music to get money is the case... this is backwards. This is cheap music! I realised this and went busking a third time. I sat there, and just breathed for a good 5 minutes, looking around at the mountains and the beautiful lake, looking around at all the families feeding the ducks - it was surreal just to be there in the first place, and here I was in front of my greatest passion, the piano! So then I simply played music for an hour. I didn't care about the money - I was just on the street enjoying playing my own music to the upmost. I made about $50, but the money was now secondary.. I mean, it payed for my favourite burger and a gelato ice-cream afterwards, but the true joy was not in these things. The true joy was in doing what I love, and sharing that with the world. Seeing people smile from something I created was way more powerful than 2 dollars that can buy me another snickers bar.

Edited August 9, 2018 by St Clair

[zenith]

22 hours ago, martin_malin said:

I think this situation arises a lot when you're not free to be fully authentic (eg: artists who make a living off Fiverrr). 

As a freelancer, this is me. It’s weird because being able to do what you feel is your life purpose is such a great thing, but at the same time, you have to survive and make money and it can skew your passion.

Even if the job is not necessarily what I want to do, I try and see value in what I’m doing for the customer and be professional. I am becoming more aware about finding a balance though and not taking certain jobs that kill my soul a little.

Sometimes you have to take care of yourself creatively, and not get sucked into hustling for cheap paying jobs that aren’t going to lead anywhere. 

Edited August 10, 2018 by zenith

[pluto]

Its because abundance doesn't necessarily have to come in form of money. Abundance comes in many forms.

Abundance - The ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it.

 

[Rebec]

Hedonic Adaptation; is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. (Wikipedia)