If you're reading this while at work, I hope you're having fun, because today marks National Have Fun At Work Day. Yes, such a day actually exists, and as these 17 quotes about loving your job articulate, if you're not currently loving your line of work, it may very well be time to change things up.
Think about it this way: Revisesociology estimates that the average person spends between 21 percent and 35 percent of their waking hours at work. There's no denying that those percentages make up a huge portion of a person's life. That being said, why would anyone want to spend 21 percent to 35 percent (and likely, way more in America's hard-pressing work culture) of their life doing something they don't enjoy? It just doesn't make sense, not even for the benefit of a spiffed up resume or high-paying salary. Life is short, you guys, and you shouldn't be spending nearly a quarter of it doing something you dread.
The 17 quotes that have been rounded up below make clear the significance of loving what you do. Of course, no job is going to be perfect, but there is definitely a serious difference between a job you hate and a job you look forward to doing. From Maya Angelou to Steve Jobs, get your shot of inspiration below, and then do some serious evaluating. It's your life to live!
1. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” — Maya Angelou
2. “The people who make it to the top – whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos – are addicted to their calling … [they] are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid.” — Quincy Jones
3. “There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?” — Warren Buffet
4. “I think the foremost quality – there’s no success without it – is really loving what you do. If you love it, you do it well, and there’s no success if you don’t do well what you’re working at.” — Malcolm Forbes
5. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
6. “Yes, I’ve made a great deal of dough from my fiction, but I never set a single word down on paper with the thought of being paid for it … I have written because it fulfilled me. Maybe it paid off the mortgage on the house and got the kids through college, but those things were on the side—I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for the joy, you can do it forever.” — Stephen King
7. “Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” — Rumi
8. “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” — Patanjali
9. “The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.” — Pearl S. Buck
10. “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
11. “Paul and I, we never thought that we would make much money out of the thing. We just loved writing software.” — Bill Gates
12. “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.” — Kahlil Gibran
13. “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” — Steve Jobs
14. “The law of work seems unfair, but nothing can change it; the more enjoyment you get out of your work, the more money you will make.” — Mark Twain
15. “Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.” — Johnny Carson
16. “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” — Ella Fitzgerald
17. I think people who are creative are the luckiest people on earth. I know that there are no shortcuts, but you must keep your faith in something greater than you, and keep doing what you love. Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world.” — Judy Collins
