It’s been just under a month since I made the move 66 miles south from Flint, MI the Vehicle City to Detroit, MI the Motor City and I must say I have grown to have a greater appreciation for both and what it means to be happy. Coming fresh off of a Social Impact Fellowship with flexible hours and the freedom to share my innocent ideas I must say I expected the “real world” with a “real job” to more like:

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But who made the rule work has to be boring, grueling, and just a paycheck. I have made the decision to be willingly ignorant to the status quo of work and shape it into the greatest learning experience in which I don’t have to come crawling to financial aid department.

My aspiration in life is to be a social entrepreneur. While it may lead to poverty and a multitude of failed experiments I choose to believe that life is only worth living when you are actually doing what you enjoy. For me that meant going unemployed after graduation and undoubtedly may happen again in the future to avoid unsatisfying work.

So far in this experiment my “work” has included attending events like:

I’ve discovered that the lens through which you see the world shapes every interaction, assignment, and late night in the office. The separation between work and happiness need not be a contradiction when you are actually doing what you like and even love.

To reach our greatest potential and be the people we admire on tv, for example, singers, movie stars, athletes, business moguls or famous artists  it takes shameless sacrifice and determination because it’s a labor of love. Every person we look up to has a story of misfortune or hardship, but the difference between the would, should, and could haves is the simple fact that the ones who made it to fame, fortune, or simply a life well lived kept going.

Now I’m no expert but I think the expectations we put on ourselves and the unwarranted expectations society places on us when it comes to work is missing a key element of happiness.

I am intentionally choosing to do what makes me happy in work, life, and love.

After one month of living in Detroit without cable or internet it has left me time to think, listen to the radio (old fashioned, trust me I know), and most of all read… A LOT of reading.

But maybe we all can’t be the people we dreamed of.

I guess my good friend Steve Jobs said it best:

You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle…

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

With love (for work and life),

Ezekiel, Innovation & Design at the United Way of Southeastern Michigan