Like what you do and do what you like? The psychologist explains

Throughout our lives we can lose a fundamental aspect to acquire more knowledge: curiosity. When we are children, we are naturally curious. We ask why everything and we want to ask questions, even more than receiving ready-made answers – which close the thought. When we are parents, we see in our children’s eyes the astonishment of the novelty, of the different, of what is understood or seen for the first time. This astonishment is what the Greek philosophers called thaumazein. With thaumazéin begins philosophy, the art of loving wisdom.

Isn’t it strange that we’re not amazed that we can lead a totally miserable life at work? Isn’t it great when we receive a job well done, because we see on the face of the person who serves us that he simply loves what he does?

Today I was amazed to go to a doctor’s appointment. He is a doctor who loves what he does. The contrast in my head was even greater, because the day before I had gone to get a prescription from another doctor, who simply didn’t want to be there and attended – not just to me – but to everyone with great reluctance.

When we think about professions, which career to choose or if it is better to change areas, we see a lot of this thought that “We should love what we do (as work)” and not just do what we like. At first it may seem the same thing, but there is a difference.

This is a reflection text on the subject, okay? So let’s investigate together the meaning of this difference?

Many professions have very broad performance perspectives. If someone graduates in an X area, and can work in N areas, they can find this difference between liking the profession, but not liking a given activity. For example, I might really like being a psychologist, but have no interest in working with sports psychology.

When we ask ourselves or other people: “Do you like what you do”, we will hear very varied answers. Some like it, some hate it, some are indifferent. It is also very common to find people who simply think or believe that they had no choices. The latter will say that it was not possible to study, or find job opportunities, that this or that, and everything will be, in the end, excuses. And there is the close thought but with a different meaning that says – it doesn’t matter, I don’t like what I do but the important thing is to like what you do.

I mean, I can have any job – not chosen by me – and, as long as I like the service imposed, that’s fine.

do what you like

Society has changed a lot in the last hundred years. If we think that relatively recently, practically the entire world population lived in fields and worked in agriculture, we will see that the changes happened very, very quickly. A few generations ago, it was a fundamental principle to find a profession for life. The whole criterion of satisfaction lay in having stability.

Today we still find many people who dream of stability, of course, but especially in large centers, we find many multifaceted professional experiences. Resumes in which the candidate didn’t even stay 1 year in a company and already went to another and another and another. This means that not only are companies not thinking more in terms of stability, but people are also not interested in being the employee of the month, of the year, of the decade.

With all these job changes, the idea is to do what you like. And what’s the difference in liking what you do? Well, liking what you do means liking a type of work, having a certain profession, with or without specific courses. Doing what you like is already linked to groping your way in search of an opportunity that is more pleasurable than profitable, more enjoyable than stable…

Conclusion

Philosophy and psychology have a long debate about freedom and unfreedom, the possibility of choosing or being coerced by circumstances. I will not go into this subject in this text, but we can see that the professional choice permeates this issue.

If someone does not have or had the conditions to do a graduation, what is the possibility of them liking what they do? If someone doesn’t know what they like, and they still haven’t found themselves – personally and professionally – how can they find satisfaction in their career? If someone does everything just for the approval of others, how can they understand their desires?

I do not intend to answer these questions either. Like children, who are amazed at the world, I would like to remain at least a little curious, and amazed, and perplexed to find so many unhappy people going to work from 8 am to 6 pm.

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