Why The Advice "Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow" Isn't Working For You

by Bonnie Boots

If you've embraced the advice to "Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow," you may be confused as to why that promised flood of funds hasn't yet filled your bank account.

I blame it on you brain. You see, one of the ways your brain works is thinking "by extension."

Your brain is designed to believe, word for word, whatever you tell it, then make what it thinks are logical extensions.

It makes logical extensions by taking the original thought and broadening it to embrace other circumstances that seem related.

If, for example, each morning as you prepare to go to your job you think, "I hate work!" your brain will believe, without question, that you hate work. It will then extend that thought to believe that you hate work of every kind.


That evening, you begin reading a book of suggestions for ways in which you could be self-employed. As you read each chapter, you get excited and begin imagining yourself in the business described.

Then your brain shifts and says, "Hold on. This looks like work to me. You'd hate this!"

Chapter by chapter your enthusiasm rises, and is quickly crushed. By the end of the book you're depressed and demotivated, convinced there isn't a single business that's worth your while.

What's happened is that earlier in the day you told your brain "I hate work!" What you really meant was you hate the long commute to your current job. But that's not what you told your brain.

Your brain has embraced your thought, "I hate work!" and it's now protecting you from getting involved in that which you hate. It's extending its definition of work to cover anything requiring you to get out of bed and apply yourself.

It's a shame, really, because you don't actually hate work. You enjoy the duties and challenges of your job, the pay and the status, In point of fact, what you actually hate is the 3-hour commute. That drive is killing you! (Go ahead. Say that to your brain and see what you get!)

This takes us back to all the books and articles you've read on the topic of "Do what you love and the money will follow."

If you repeat this to your brain, over and over, it will believe it without question. And it will also believe, by extension, that you must NOT do what you do NOT love.

Let's say you love writing but you hate negotiating prices and terms. And you really hate being rejected.

You will write your brains out, creating short stories, articles, even a novel or two. You're doing what you love, but you will never make one dime from it because you will not do what you do not love. You will not take care of the business side of writing.

My work is writing and designing. I'd be oh-so-happy to spend all my time doing nothing but that. But to make the money follow, I have to take care of business. I have to set prices and negotiate terms. I have to meet deadlines. And I have to work with all sorts of clients, some I love and some I'm not so crazy about.

"Do what you love and the money will follow" ignores the fact that all work requires us to do a few things we don't really love if we want a successful business. Even the caveman in the illustration above has to bow to that rule to make his living!

Try telling your brain, "Do whatever you ethically need to do to do the work you love," and you'll start seeing some results.

 

 
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