This morning I learned of a doctor here in fair OKC who is, and I quote, “really excited about IBD.” If you are unfamiliar, IBD stands for Irritable Bowel Diseases and includes things like colitis, IBS, Crohn’s Disease, and others. My immediate internal reaction to the above quote: “Ew!”
Why – nay, how – could any person be excited about IBD?!? And, yet, I suppose we should all be glad that someone is. Do you even get excited about your own bowels? If you are like most people, then probably not. But this guy is. Astounding! The result is you don’t have to get excited about it; you can rather seek out someone (preferably a doctor, but to each his own) who is excited and can deal with it on your behalf simply because they want to.
After my shock wore down and I once more thought rationally about the bowel-excited doctor, I thought of what some people must think about the work things in which I find excitement.
Who would want to read all day?
Who would want to write for hours without ever feeling “finished” for the day?
Who could possibly want to linger over archived documents and then write an annotated history for someone else?
Why would anybody be excited about editing the works of another?
Folks, this is one sure measure of whether you are doing a job you love. If you can see that the average person would have difficulty being excited about your job details, but you regularly are, then chance are good that you are in the right place. If you agree that no one, not even you, could get excited about what you do, then what? Find your excitement.
And for all of you who don’t want to read or write or edit or [fill in the blank], let someone else do it. Someone who is both able and excited.
-Amanda Salisbury, writer, ShyJot Publications LLC