How to Find a Balance Between Passion and Practicality

Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Confucius is credited with this quote, and many people have accepted his words as truth.

Growing up, we are told to follow our passions, to dream big and reach for the stars. To find what we truly love. Only this will bring us true fulfillment.

But is this reality?

Sometimes our passions don’t make for viable careers. If I could read books all day for a living, that would be great, but it wouldn’t be a career.

Or even when we do follow our passions, we end up having to compromise in the process of making it a career. For me, I’ve always had a passion for writing, but I didn’t always envision myself writing about construction companies or grocery stores or strip clubs (all of which I have done in my career).

The truth is we need to be practical with our life choices. We need to be able to make enough money to sustain our life. And sometimes passion isn’t what’s going to get us there.

But making a career choice doesn’t mean we should forget about our passions completely. We need to find something that makes us happy and that we enjoy making a career, even if it isn’t exactly how we envisioned. Here’s what I’ve learned about building a career…