Do You Love What You Do?

It's one of life's big questions: When you get up in the morning, are you happy about doing whatever is about to occupy your time?

Research (or maybe just plain common sense) suggests the key is to find "good work," a potent mix of what people are excellent at, what engages them, and their ethics - what they believe matters. Those are more likely high-absorption callings: people love what they are doing. Full absorption in what we do feels good, and pleasure is the emotional marker for flow.

People are in flow relatively rarely in daily life. Sampling people's moods at random reveals that most of the time people are either stressed or bored, with only occasional periods of flow; only about 20 percent of people have flow moments at least once a day. Around 15 people never enter flow in a typical day.

I'm a lucky guy. Tutoring is something I'm excellent at, and I love the result of people succeeding in school. Summer is always welcome, but my motor runs high when I'm with a student, and so I'm regularly in flow. And freedom when I'm not tutoring is a flow moment too (I'm also excellent at relaxing).