Some people really love what they do.
They start out watching and reading up on their interests. They collect things that demonstrate what these interests are. For me at one time, this was frogs. Not sure why, yet sometime in my junior high years, I began with a single ceramic frog. Soon it evolved into stuffed frogs, photos of frogs, even jewelr. And although I had begun to grow out of this interest, others thought of me and thought of frogs. So I emersed myself into the fad.
That wasn't a full time focus. I had other interests - sports, reading, biking and soon it became theatre. In time I found myself fantasizing, as many teens do, about making my interests a full-time focus. But in reality, I saw little chance of commiting to any of the above, even theatre. That took energy, and I was much too passive.
Today, as I observe folks in their professional lives, I notice the full-time focus of one thing commonly - technology. Since technology used to be the phone, when I was growing up, I shyed away. It required too much investment of my energy in keeping someone else entertained. Today, technology has shifted to keeping the entertaining to SELF.
Email, Ipods, Blackberries, facebook, linkedin, YouTube, twitter, all tend to replace technology, even when we're at work. Yes, it happened. The line was erased between work and play as we gradually focused on the fun and entertaining. Now the lines are erased between work and life itself.
We so easily shift from 8 hour days to 10, or longer as we get caught up in one form of social media or another. We can't turn off and get further distracted. We claim the need to connect and stay connected, for work related reasons. Slowly we see our lives get away from us. Even though we rationalize that we are adding life to work.
I guess the ultimate question is, how do we feel at the end of the day? Do we still love what we do or are we enamored with our toys?
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