TOTAL READ TIME: 3 MINUTES
As soon as Jada touched my hair, her mouth gaped open and expressed, “I LOVE your hair!” This was last weekend’s salon visit with a new stylist. She caressed my hair like a potter molds their mud, and then it was time to get to work.
Her sheer enthusiasm for my head of hair caused me to ask her a few questions. How long have you been a stylist? What made you choose this as your profession? And so on.
She started her story of when she was a little girl, she LOVED to do people’s hair. Her siblings’ hair, her mother’s hair and all of her friends. With a big smile, Jada explained how grateful she is because she is able to do what she loves.
(As an aside, one of the questions I asked is “What type of hair do you like cutting and styling the most?” Her answer was men’s hair, because their shorter haircuts are more technical in nature and she loves that challenge.)
Jada married her joy with her job. How lucky is she! Imagine a world where we all married our joy with our job. Imagine we all had the courage to take that path.
For me, in my late teens / early twenties I had very distinct joys emerge. Guess what? I let fear overtake my brain and I did not follow that path. Luckily, over the past twenty-plus years, I’ve discovered new joys. Even though I’ve chosen not to go back and re-start my career, I’ve discovered ways to weave new joys into my work.
How about you? Where are you at with the joy-job continuum? If you are one of the lucky ones – be grateful. If not – can you start to find ways to weave them in? I bet you can find a way to do it.
Even if you can’t find a way to marry them with your work, at least give yourself permission to experience a little more joy. Maybe you always wanted to learn how to play ukulele. Maybe you want to learn how to sail. Maybe you were sparked with joy in a painting class in college and haven’t touched a brush since. Give yourself permission.
After all, Jada is cheering us on!