Hobby, Job, Career, Vocation (Liz Gilbert)
If you haven’t heard Liz Gilbert’s explanation of the differences between hobbies, jobs, careers, and vocations, you need to. I’m going to embed it below so you can watch it. Then I’ll offer some thoughts below that.
Hobby
Keep a few hobbies. There’s a certain kind of enjoyment that you can only find when you don’t care that much. As soon as we label something as “work”, there’s a pressure that changes the experience. When it’s just a hobby, we don’t find much identity in these things, so we can escape reality and have a great time!
Some of my hobbies are following baseball, making pizzas and burgers, playing Nintendo, and watching movies. I don’t think any of these will become my job, and I enjoy them with a disconnected affection. If any of these ceased to exist, it wouldn’t bother me that much.
Job
I’ve had a few jobs over the course of my post-college work life so far. I’ve worked at coffee shops three separate times, because I knew I could clock in and clock out, and it wouldn’t take the creative energy away from my freelance work.
I enjoyed these jobs! I look back on these fondly because I genuinely had a good time. I worked hard, I learned a lot and met some great people. But working at a coffee shop didn’t frustrate me the way my freelance work does. When I poured a subpar latte, I slid it across the counter and forgot about it. With that, coffee also didn’t inspire me to the level that freelancing within digital content has.
Career
Freelancing within the digital content world has become my career. It frustrates me and rewards me like nothing else has. It connects with the people I work with in such a unique way. Solving problems, losing money, and winning big are all unique experiences that forge a different kind of bond with people.
I know a lot of people who have switched careers in their thirties and forties, so I’m not ruling anything out. I just know that for now, this is the thing I’m chasing. I want to learn more, fail more, and win more. I’ll sacrifice a lot for this.
Vocation
I can’t tell you that I’ve found my vocation yet! I don’t know what the deeper thread between everything is, the thing I’ll keep doing no matter what. You’ll know when I find it though, because I won’t shut up about it.
All the best out there!
