“Find Something You Love To Do, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

I was talking to a good friend the other night, she is thinking about the next chapter in her life and she kept talking about what things cost and how much money she would have to earn to live, she is by herself. She never mentioned what she wanted.

At some point, I broke in. I don’t like to give advice unless asked, and she was asking me.  I found myself saying, “look, I think you’ve got this backward. First, you’ve got to decide what you want to do and what you love to do, and then, you can figure out how to pay for it.”

Somewhat to my surprise, I was saying just what Confucius sad. In our culture, money is the religion for many people,we are taught from our first breath that money is security, money is everything, money should dictate every choice we make from work to where we live and what we do.

The people who control wealth and media have always told us that security comes first, the first thing we must do is make sure we have enough money to be secure, to get credit, be safe, and have what we need.

I don’t remember the day, but I think it was I left a corporate job – CBS News – to write books. My wife at the time went out and bought a desk and put it in our bedroom and said, “well you want to be a writer, write on this.” And I did, I wrote my first novel.

Soon, I was holed up in the freezing cold attic, typing away through my fingerless Dickens gloves. I was never that happy. I wrote 26 books after the first one.

I have done so many stupid and wrong things in my life, I didn’t even notice at the time that this was a wonderful and important decision. Talking to my friend, this was reaffirmed. But my life was transformed.

Living the life I love has not been simple, nor secure. I don’t have any of the things I am told I ought to have at this point in my life. I am out there,  on my own, there are no nets under me.

But I wouldn’t trade a day of my life for a billion dollars. I know money has nothing to do with security – just think of the wealthy people you know. I know living for money is just another form of slavery, they just don’t need the chains, we imprison ourselves.

When my book publishing world collapsed, I just kept on doing what I loved. Write here. I didn’t really know any other way, thank God, if I did, I might have fled this life.

There is some debate about who first said uttered this quote. Most scholars attribute the quote to Confucius it has sometimes been attributed to author Harvey McCay.

In 1982, a Princeton professor employed the saying and credited an unnamed teacher as the author. Bob, a reader of the blog, passed it along to me this morning.

“By loving what you do, you found it, Jon. Congratulations.” It was a nice note to get.”

Whoever actually said this – I’m going with Confucius –  was wise and profound.  I decided to find something I loved to do and did it. I believe that people who do that are blessed in a particular way, we know one another when we meet.

Somehow, I have survived.  And I love my life, my writing, my farm, my photography. None of it seems like work to me, since I began doing what I loved, I’ve not worked a single day.

Next, to Maria, finding something that I loved was the best decision of my life, and perhaps the most difficult and controversial. I’ve never really looked back.

Nobody has a perfect life, not the rich, not the poor.

But I told my friend a good life for me began when I put loving what I did first, not last.  That is my idea of security. Somebody told me at the time that if I loved my life enough, I’d always figure out a way to make it work.

So far, thanks to the angels, they were right.