CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. Torn between passion and work
By Jessica Sitomer
When Cal Weaver’s wife asks for a divorce, he is completely shattered over losing the love of his life. When he meets Jacob Palmer (played by Ryan Gosling), he accepts that he has to grow, date, and put focus on an area that he’d rather not, because he’d rather focus on getting his wife back.
Cal (played by Steve Carell) splits his time between up leveling his wardrobe, meeting new woman and doing what he’s passionate about, taking care of his wife. Of course the later is done in secret, but he still gets it done.
You love when you’re doing what you’re passionate about but the business to get the work you’re passionate about.. not so much right? How do you motivate yourself to do the necessary “work” when you’d so much rather spend your time being creative and doing what you love?
Let’s start by making some analogies:
1. (For the parents) You love your kids and they bring you a feeling of joy you never thought imaginable. You look at them and feel something so deep that it penetrates your heart and moves straight to your soul. You never knew you could love someone so much. AND there are times when you have to say “no” and be the bad guy. There are also times when your kids rebel and you have to deal with aggravation and sometimes worse.
2. (For the pet owners) You love your pet. The sweet face, the snuggling, the companionship, and the unconditional love. BUT let’s not forget for every pet there is “clean up” and the bigger the pet, the bigger the “clean up.”
3. (For the adventurers) You love the rush. There’s a thrill to doing something that most people never would and a huge sense of accomplishment when you’ve completed another adventure. AND adventures come with bangs, bruises, and sometimes worse.
4. (For the travelers) You love seeing new places and experiencing different lifestyles. BUT it can get expensive, difficult to time with your entertainment career and most travelers have a horror story or two.
5. (For the gardeners) You love to grow your own veggies, flowers, fruits. It’s rewarding to spend a day in the garden and then consume the fruits of your labor. BUT the pesky bugs and bad weather conditions can be a pain in the butt to control.
Are you getting the picture? For everything you love to do, there is a draw back. So how do you motivate yourself to push through the draw backs of pursuing your entertainment industry career in order to spend the majority of your time doing what you love? Here are some tips that will help:
1. Create a schedule. A very simple weekly calendar where you schedule the majority of the time doing things that inspire your passion. AND at least 10 hours a week focused on your business work.
2. Do the fun stuff first. It’s okay if the work you do to drum up business is fun. Set visits are fun. Networking with friends is fun. Going to premiers is fun. So schedule the fun stuff first. If you use your business tools during the fun stuff, you may never need to participate in the dull stuff.
3. Use a reward system. If you must do dull stuff or worse… dreaded stuff, give yourself a time-table in which to get it done and then reward yourself with something that inspires your passion.
Your life’s journey is a give and take. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just the journey. You wouldn’t be able to appreciate how good the great stuff is if you had nothing to compare it to, right? That said, you do have to generate work for yourself so you can have far more of the good stuff.
And Action!
1. Write down everything you can possibly do to generate work for yourself.
2. Put them in order from what you enjoy the most to the least.
3. Design an action plan for yourself and implement one or more of the tips to create the possibility of accomplishing more than you’ve ever done before.
4. Celebrate your success when you recognize that you can do anything you set your mind to when it comes to your business.
Cal was willing to feel uncomfortable and put himself out there, and in the end he got everything he wanted and more. Are you willing to do the same?
