What if everyone who spent their time at a meaningless “job” suddenly found themselves filling their days with “meaningful work” instead. What if this work were so meaningful, so personally satisfying, that the reward and true motivation for getting up in the morning were no longer money, but rather the satisfaction of doing the work itself and the resulting feelings of joy.

As I was eating dinner tonight I caught a glimpse of this very foreign world and I imagined for a moment what it might be like to live in a society as complex as ours, built not on the principles of economics, but on the principles of love. Sure, it sounds very utopistic, but what if everyone were doing their “life’s work”, what if we were all being that person we were born to be? Could a society like ours actually function? At first I began to think that some tasks, like the mass transport of goods and raw materials, would be just too boring to be loved by anyone. But then I remembered that of one of my best friends who is a truck driver swears that she loves her work so much that she’d even do it for free!

Would you work for free? If the true value you find in your job is mostly monetary, then you are being robbed. While feelings of emotional fulfillment and joy can’t be bought, they can be earned. Start exploring your passion today by asking yourself, “what kind of ‘work’ would I do for free?”