Getting paid to do what you love?

I was taking out my surfboard from my car in the parking lot at El Porto when the guy parked next to me got out of his car, walked up to the parking meter, and let out a series of swear words that would make an army sergeant blush.

Let me explain, see recently the amount of time a quarter could get you there went down from fifteen minutes to ten. So for an hour in the water, you have to drop a $1.20. If you’re in the water pretty regularly, like I am, it tends to rack up rather quickly.

But that aside, the guy did let out at least one interesting nugget of insightfulness, and that was, “They don’t pay us to do this!”

Well, he is right, he and I don’t get paid to surf, but then again, I am not a pro. But it got me thinking, what if I was paid to do what I love? I love to surf; so getting paid to do it would be great, right?

But then I thought about it, and I figured that there would be a lot of pressure on me to make sure my surfing was fantastic. If I was getting paid to do it, I couldn’t really afford to have an off day out in the water. I would have to be top of my game every time I went out. But over time I really think I would stop seeing surfing as fun and more as work.

I am only saying this because we all figure that getting paid to do what we love would be great, and that it should be a major goal for a person to achieve. But if you mix your passion with the stress and pressure of bringing home a check, you might forget why you love that particular activity so much. So if you ever get paid to do what you love, what ever it may be (save for killing people), remind yourself from time to time why you love that passion.

---Stefan Slater