Have you ever wondered if what you were doing was what you truly loved doing? You might have also heard the saying, “you will never have to work a day in your life if you love what you are doing.”
When you know that you love what you are doing, it will always be a priority, so you will always have time for it, but if you are unsure about how you feel about what you are doing or need confirmation, ask yourself these 12 questions.
Page Contents
1) What Keeps You Up At Night?
You can look at this question in two ways; one way is that what stresses you keeps you awake, the other is what excites you. As a kid, you probably couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve either, and that was because you were so excited about what you would get the next day.
Let’s focus on the more favourable possibility that you can’t sleep at night because you love what you will get to do the next day.
If you find yourself having trouble falling asleep at night because you are thinking about something, or are excited and looking to the next day, then this is a good sign that you love what you are doing. For myself, often, while I’m having a shower before bed, I have thoughts and ideas about articles or videos I could create. And this happens because I am so passionate about those projects.
If you are having trouble sleeping at night because you can’t stop thinking about something, either it is causing you too much stress, or you love doing it, let’s hope it’s the second option.
2) Even When It’s Terrible, What Can You Stick With?
It is always easy to keep at something when it is going well, but when it gets tricky, that is when most people start to give up. If you can stick with something through the worst of times, then you can be confident that you are drawn to it and get lots of value from it. When my brother was younger, he was in love with golf, and he would play every day, even when it was raining.
If you are in love with what you are doing, it won’t matter how the day is going or how you perform; you will stick with it no matter what.
Good or bad, what we cling to is where we see the most improvement; if you can get past the awful days, then you know you are dedicated.
If you keep on giving up on things, then you don’t love it; seek out something that you won’t give up no matter what happens.
3) When You Have Time For Nothing Else, What Do You Keep Doing?
There are only so many hours in the day, and we all have different priorities; however, when we love what we are doing, it is always our top priority. This means we will always have time for something we love, even if we might not have time for anything else.
Having a kid and a full-time job, there isn’t much time for anything else, but you will find me sitting at my desk writing whenever I have time. This isn’t to say that I couldn’t do other things. Instead, this is my most important project right now, so I give it all the time I can get.
While we might have busy schedules, we always have a little bit of time for what we love doing. If you only have time for one thing and it is always the same thing, you can have confidence that you enjoy doing it.
4) When Your Friend Ask You To Hang Out, What Would You Do Instead?
Everyone enjoys spending time with their friends, but when we are really in love with what we are doing, we might prioritize it over everything else. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t spend time with your friends, but if there is something you would rather do instead, then that might be a sign that you love doing it.
This one is a little tough because some people are more extroverted than others; my brother always spends time with his friends when he can. Whereas I often rather stay at home and work on my hobbies, this is a personality difference; however, the fact remains that what you prioritize is where you put your time.
If you would rather work on a hobby or project than spend time with your friends, you know you love what you are doing.
5) What Can You Wake Up Early To Do?
I hate waking up early in the morning but can easily stay up way past my bedtime do almost anything else. But when it comes to getting up early, there needs to be a good reason. Put another way, outside of my life, depending on it;
I’m not going to get out of bed early unless there is something I am genuinely excited about doing.
There was a time when my daughter was a little bit younger, and it was impossible to do anything while she was awake. However, I had a book I wanted to finish. So every day, I’d wake up 90 minutes before everyone else and use that time to write my book. It was tough, and I was always tired and dreamed of being back in bed, but I loved what I was doing, so I could tolerate the inconvenience.
If you love what you are doing, you will wake up early to get back to it, even when you are tired.
6) What Do You Do That Keeps You Focused And Away From Time Wasting?
Last year when I didn’t have my heart dedicated to any particular project, anytime I had a break from work, I’d listen to YouTube videos. I couldn’t tell you how much time I wasted, but without anything else to focus on, it was easy to do nothing of value. Now that I love what I am doing, I’ve always got something to do when I find some free time.
When you have a plan or are focused on something, you will always be thinking about it, and it will occupy your time.
When you have a deadline or a goal you are working toward, it is easy to keep on track because there is pressure to perform. While loving what you do isn’t always the same as having a goal, they both share a certain amount of laser focus.
If you are someone who tends to waste time, if you’ve found something that you love doing, you will work at it whenever you get a chance. At the same time, you will regret wasting time on things that don’t help you get closer to your goals.
7) What Have You Never Been Afraid Of Doing?
This might be a trick question because anything that we are getting started at might come with hesitation. But generally speaking, once we have tried something, we know if we like it or not, so our feelings about it are revealing. If you love what you are doing, you will not be afraid of doing it; instead, you will embrace it.
Hesitation with anything new is natural and a part of life, but once we get started, our discomfort is often a sign that we might not be into it.
Taking the other side of this, if you never want to slow down or hesitate, it is likely a good sign that you have found something you love. We want to be conscious of what we are getting ourselves into, so knowing that some fear is to be expected will help, but don’t let it get out of hand.
If you are never afraid to get back into what you are doing, you can be sure that you love doing it.
8) What Can’t You Wait To Tell Other People About?
We are always passionate about what we love, so we want to talk about them or bring them up in conversations. If you love to talk about something, it probably means that you know a lot about it or at least spend a lot of time learning about it. This is always a good sign because it shows your dedication and interest in the topic in question.
I’m not very talkative in a big group of people, but I can talk for a long time about the things I am currently into when given a chance. But this makes sense; when we learn about something, it fills our heads and kind of takes over.
Sometimes we can get overly occupied with topics that we might wish to avoid, but generally speaking, we will like talking about the stuff we are really into.
If you can’t stop talking about your hobbies or whatever you are into, you most likely love what you are doing.
9) What Did You Always Want To Do As a Child?
When we are kids, we are purer in our thinking; we will often say what is on our minds without worrying about what other people think. As we get older, we tend to be more cautious and practical about our interests. This has its benefits as we can’t always do whatever we want. But at the same time, we shouldn’t forget about the honesty from our childhood.
One thing about kids is that they don’t know a lot about how the world works, which has its advantages. We probably don’t know about all the opportunities out there as kids, but we also aren’t distracted by money and status either.
So think back to what you wanted to do as a kid, does that still interest you today? Is it still something you could do? If you’ve changed your mind about what you wanted to do way back then, what happened?
Kids are usually honest, so when they say that they love what they are doing, they mean it.
Think back to when you were a kid; what did you love to do? Why don’t you try that out again today? Just be sure to update it to your current maturity levels.
10) What Are You Always Trying To Learn More About?
Our interests often reveal who we are and what matters to us. Playing video games can be fun, but it also takes a lot of practice to get good. On top of that, you might read about strategies or cheats online to improve your game. While not everyone likes playing video games, they can probably appreciate the dedication that getting good takes.
What we love doing drives our motivation, so if we are always trying to learn more about something, that is a clear sign that it is something that we love doing.
In the past, I used to love studying philosophy and would read about it as much as I could, it was hard to talk to other people about it, but that didn’t stop me from being interested.
If you love doing something, you will not think twice about learning more about it or getting better at doing it.
11) What Do You Enjoy Doing? What Would You Do For Free?
This might seem like an obvious question to ask when it comes to knowing what you love doing, but sometimes what is obvious isn’t always straightforward. If you enjoy doing something, you will do it more often, even if there are other things you should be doing instead.
Also, if you are learning something for yourself, you are pretty much doing it for free, so that is a good sign as to how much it matters to you.
I’ve mentioned this in previous articles, but right now, it is ten at night; I am tired and could be relaxing on the couch. But instead, I am working for free on this article. I can tell you that I’m pushing myself, and in part, that is happening because I’ve set an unrealistic goal that I’m committed to accomplishing.
Nonetheless, I love writing and get tons of satisfaction out of it, so that is why I can keep at it despite the time.
You know you love what you are doing if you keep doing it even if there are no rewards other than your satisfaction.
12) What Do you Do That You Are Sure Is Important?
We all do what we do because we believe in what we are doing and have our reasons, but we can never be sure how important what we are doing is to everyone else. This is where we need to have a bit of discernment, or the ability to see what is right and wrong.
Put another way, how can you be sure that what you want to do is important? Once you are confident about what you enjoy doing and the world appears to need it, you have found a great match that you can commit yourself to.
It isn’t easy to know what is essential, but we use our love for what we do as a guide. If you love it, then it is important to you; if other people have commented on its value to them, then you might have some indication of its actual value to the world around you.
If you are sure that something is important and you love doing it, then it is a great idea to invest more of your time into it.
While these questions ask you to look in different directions, hopefully, they have given you some hints about what your feelings are about what you are doing. On the other hand, you probably don’t need these questions to tell you what you love; you already know, but you might not be ready to admit it yet.
If you are looking for some questions to help you think about what direction to take next, check out this list, as it will help you figure out what you should do with your life.