Do what you love

When I left school I was convinced I'd work in the travel industry. I studied Tourism and Communications at uni - in hindsight, the perfect combination for me. I dropped out by the end of the first semester.

Life was so different in the 90s. There was this advice going around at the time: "Don't get a job doing something you enjoy because the things you love will start to feel like work."

Worst advice ever.

I started to worry that any time I travelled (or wrote) it would feel like work. I didn't think of it the other way around: that if you do something you love it might never feel like work.

It's taken me a while, but I finally get it.

This week I've been raving on about having met all my writing deadlines and looking forward to taking a break, and then in the next breath writing about how I suck at stopping and taking a break.

Both sentiments are true.

Just like I love eating like a perfect, healthy person and yet will hide away to eat a tub of ice-cream and a block of chocolate... I love to work but I love to slow down too.

What I do now fits so well with those two sides to me. We have lots of family trips planned over spring and summer, and hopefully a couple of bigger trips next year, and with each of those comes a plan for some more writing.

It doesn't make the holidays feel like work, it makes the work feel like something that fits seamlessly with my life.

It isn't even just the travel side of things - other writing I do, I do because it interests me. I get to be interested in something and then speak to interesting people about their take on it, research it and learn more. Such a nerd.

So please excuse me while I enjoy some simple, quiet time with my family... and then sneak off to write up some pitches and plan my next jottings.

It's what happens when you do what you love.