Lessons – Work, Love, Love, Work | Conversations with Coaches | Boxer Media

Hello again, and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. This time, it’s just me delivering a, quote unquote lesson from one of or from many of my conversations, a lot of times what happens is I’ll just get certain, certain turns of phrase or certain concepts from multiple coaches and multiple multiple, like perspectives and directions, and realize that they’re speaking to the same thing with with equal power and potency. So that’s one of the main things I love about getting to do this podcast. One thing that came up for me recently, and this was actually, I mean, it’s tangential because I’ve, I’ve admired this this man’s work for a long time. You may have heard of him, maybe you probably are familiar with at least some level, Seth Godin. He is a He’s author of like, 20 books now, I think, just an expert marketer, cultural critic. He’s just kind of one of my favorite minds of modern times. And that’s kind of his kind of a big claim. But I find him endlessly insightful and thought provoking, even when and sometimes, especially when I’m I’m not sure if I agree with him when he posits something. And I have a he gives you gives you things to push off of. Anyway, there was something that I would I don’t know if it’s his quote, he probably like most great artists got it from somewhere else. What is it good artists borrow Great artists steal whatever that quote is. That’s a, that’s a lesson for a different time or different contexts.

But I was listening to an interview of his recently, relatively recently, and he laid a quote out there, it was sort of like a segue from a previous point he’s making so it’s one of those things where he just kind of he led with this quote, it’s a great was one of it’s one of those things where it’s just like, he really planted a flag, and then got like, 10, or 15, really good minutes of conversation. And there was one interview I was listening to, from this one quote, or from this one line, I should say, and it really has stayed with me, because it speaks very directly to something that I feel like a lot of us have at least heard maybe even internalized before, in a certain way. And it kind of it puts a spin on it that got me really thinking along lines I’ve been thinking of in different contexts, but it really kind of folded in a few, a few braids of thought that I’ve had with me for a while. So let me lay it on you and then talk about a little bit. So what he said this flag he planted in this, this leg of the conversation was do what you love is for amateurs love what you do is for professionals lay that out there like he starts out with the do what you love. And he says is for amateurs, and you can hear the pause, you’re like, Oh, he’s got a little like, he’s got a little polarization going on here. I wonder where he’s gonna go with this. I really love this, I’ve been thinking about it for since I first heard it, and reflecting on it.

And again, kind of folding it into other thoughts I’ve had do what you love is something you hear a lot, you know, pursue your passion, you know, if you if you do what you love for your work, never work a day in your life, there’s all sorts of different ways to get set. And I’ve spoken I believe I know, I’ve had conversations about this with coaches, more than one actually probably more than a dozen at this point. speaking directly to this kind of concept. I think I might even talked about this in the lessons episode before or talked around this concept of love and work. And I really, really, really, really, really love this particular dichotomy, this particular way to split up this idea, because I’m a big believer in in love, not just as an emotion or as a feeling, but as a choice and act of will a way of life. All in everything in between. And so do what you love is for amateurs or something that kind of it’s a good little little poke in my sensitive spot, because it’s one of those things where it’s, it’s a concept I have left unexamined at certain times of my life. And love what you do is for professionals, something that speaks directly to me, because not everything that you’re going to do is just going to give you the feeling of love, you’re not going to, you know, necessarily love writing up that email that you’ve been putting off. Even if it’s a really important one, and it’s to someone that’s important to you. It’s a conversation you’re invested in, you’re not going to Sara Lee gonna love the four paragraphs that you have to type out and then edit and make sure you didn’t say anything weird. And whatever happens best is one kind of random example because we all have inboxes and we all have emails we’re probably putting off for flying. But love what you do.

It’s something it’s first of all, just the phrase itself, putting love first love what you do, because love is the driver Love is the mover of action. Love is the is the is the catalyzer in the force behind. So love first and then let that love permeate everything that you do. It’s sort of like he’s have like it’s when you have in mind what you’re doing for live and what you’re doing for your work and I’m not who I’m speaking to here a lot of you are coaches or have been coached extensively in your life or both. And love or some form of love is really at the heart of everything that you do. You’re doing what you’re doing because you’re passionate about it because you You want to serve you want to give back, you want to take the life that you’ve lived in the lessons that you’ve learned, and not only distill them for yourself, but also work to distill them and translate them for others so that they can have the same or even greater effect on their lives as it’s had on yours. This is, honestly, I feel like that’s what that exception for because any of any of you that I’ve spoken to already or any of you that I’ve encountered tangentially, I feel like this is really, really close to if not at the center of why you do what you do. So love what you do as professionals is a really good lesson. I think I know for me, and I think for you, because you’re not always going to feel love. At seven in the morning, when you’re getting your day started or seven at night, when you have a late night call that you couldn’t schedule any time or an emergency where you just had to get jump into some kind of a meeting or you had to have some sort of concert with a client, or whatever it happens to be the you know, the dog ate some chocolate and then get their stomach pumped or whatever it happens to be.

There’s so many different things that could intervene. But love what you do. guides you, it centers you, it keeps you on the track you want to be on even when the things that you have to do aren’t necessarily lovable. Not all of our tasks are going to be lovable. And I have talked about this before. And there is there is work, there’s there’s work to be done. And some of that work is very, very, very hard. That does not mean it cannot be permeated with and driven by love, if you put that love first. So, again, I keep I probably said the word love 17,000 times in this particular episode, I don’t care. Do what you love is for amateurs love what you do is for professionals. It’s a great quote. It’s just a great line to really provoke thought and to shine different lights from different perspectives both within my own mind and within yours and just tease out different kinds of truths, different different aspects of what it is to to love and work and work and love. Anyway, I will leave you with that. And I will talk to you again quite soon.