I caught a snatch of Radio 4 the other day, when a radio presenter was being interviewed, and he was talking about radio being his great passion. Specifically he said

You hear some footballers say I would play football in an empty stadium, and it’s like that for me and radio. I have to do it, even in an ’empty stadium’

His point (I think) was about motivation. Even if a footballer is all alone, in an empty stadium, they will still play football because it’s what they love.

I’ve been thinking about these sorts of things for a while, and what Confucius apparantly said:

Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

I think this is an over-simplification, but it’s a compelling statement with a lot of truth. Find the people who never have to a work a day again in their lives financially (Formula 1 drivers, Rock stars, etc) – and they choose to continue to work. In some cases it’s greed, but I genuinely think a lot of these people have turned their passion into their job, and don’t want to do anything else. The paddock seems to be full of ex-F1 drivers just hanging around really. In these sorts of cases are being paid to do what other people would pay to do!

The next step is of course self-reflection. What are my empty stadia?

Well, there’s obviously ‘blogging/writing (‘cos nobody reads this, I pay to make it available, and still write it!) Photography’s got to be in there. Writing ‘stuff’ for computers (web pages, code, etc). I suppose Church and Growing Leaders, but religion’s kind of in a different category, somehow – and I’d probably add worship leading and preaching (not that I’ve done either recently). I still, at times, wish I’d gone for it and pursued a career in the media – specifically radio. That said, I’m happy in my current situation, and can’t and wouldn’t regret any decision on the way here.

My experience is when I’m doing stuff I’m good at and enjoy (e.g. programming), it doesn’t feel like work, so perhaps Conficius was onto something…