In the past, I might have thought your comments too cynical, but now I think maybe you are on to something, not to dash dreams, but to be realistic about life. The last few years I have gone back to school to add to my skillset so I could transition to a career field I have long been interested in. I invested incredible effort, time and money. Two days ago, I had to realize that no matter how hard I tried, how much I enjoyed it and how much I wanted it, I could not get good enough at it to be marketable and earn a living at it.

To be fair, there are other influencing factors now that maybe 25+ years ago I would not have encountered as much. It seems that the quest for unlimited corporate profits is so pervasive that speed, like counting "piecework", is all that matters, even when the type of work doesn't lend itself to this type of measurement.

I'm really at a crossroads and need to be able to make a living. I'm not getting any younger and I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed and disillusioned. I do have many interests and a degree of talent which mainly involve visual creativity and design, such as photography, for example. Does that mean I should pursue photography or something else creative to make a living? Graphic design is also very high pressure, and ironically, allows little time/opportunity to be creative. Time is money.

What to do. . .

If you have already won awards for your visual creativity you are probably talented enough to make it pay.

I feel for you. I, too, am struggling with how to marry the need for doing my heart's desire and the need to put food on the table.

It's a complicated equation, I think. For me, it's a bit of all of the following: How do I make do with less money? How do I get my two teenagers through college? How do I make sure I'm not old and broke? How do I make sure I have medical insurance? All of this balanced against the thought that, I'm not getting any younger, and if I keep waiting, I may look back at my life and regret not doing what makes me happy.

I'm reading a book by David Whyte called Crossing an Unknown Sea, which talks about his quest to make poetry his life's work, and actually get paid for it.

It's a thoughtful look at just this issue. It might help you make some decisions about where you want to go next.

I'd like to hear what other members do to strike the balance.

In my particular case, "striking the balance" as you put it has been hard for me to wrap my mind around. I'm in a field that I fell into at the age of 18 and have been doing the same thing my whole life. It's decent pay, but nothing glamorous. Finding a way to make money at what I love doing is a conundrum, as I enjoy many things and doing any one of them for a living would remove part of the joy that I get from it in the first place.

I guess to resort to mantras in the interest of keeping this short, I'd have to say that I've adopted the "Work to live, don't live to work" line of reasoning. As long as my job is tolerable, pays the bills plus a little and affords me enough time off to do what I enjoy, then I stick with it. I pay my dues by going to work faithfully, then in "my" time, do the things I enjoy doing, just for fun. No pressure, no financial stress, just enjoyment.

I guess I've drawn a division in this area and personally consider a job as a way of sustaining the life I choose to lead. I think sometimes the whole craze with "doing what you love" gets overrated. While some people tend to get that "dream" job, the bulk of society for centuries has just plain "worked" as a form of provision. Then they had their "hobbies". Some end up turning that into a cottage business, some don't.

Actually, it's kind of worked in reverse for me. I've spent my life working around machinery and troubleshooting mechanical issues. It's not exactly something I thoroughly enjoy, but it's tolerable. In turn, it's allowed me certain skills and talents that I use in my everyday life that allow me to repair, build and maintain most anything in my home, to which I DO find a sense of gratification and fulfillment.

So anyway, that's just my own personal perspective on "striking a balance".

I think the flip side of this is 'Do what you love, the money will take care of itself.'

I see that you are all onto something that I had not thought a lot about: balance and joy.

Dreg points out that a job can put food on the table without being your reason to live. How true.

Lori mentions the importance of rethinking big things when they just don't pan out. It's tough to do. Thanks, Lori.

Romi and Hip both know that happiness comes from within. I have forgotten that more times than I care to remember.

Dallas, thanks for starting this thread. I hope people come back to it as it's been a while. After years of wondering what my "purpose" was and trying to figure out what job I could find to match it, I'm also getting irritated by the endless "you can live your dream" bunk...well, not bunk, exactly, but yes, I also think it's basically a crock. I don't know how much money I've wasted on book offshoots of the "parachute" paradigm. If it's that cool to do, why would anyone need to pay people to do it? Yes, I guess the key is to find the balance; work to live and enjoy every minute you have that's your own. Still...I don't want to totally give up the dream. Is anyone out there living their dream?