Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

I didn't truly love what I was doing until I found a personal purpose for life that ties together all aspects of my life so far. Essentially, I had to reflect enough on what I've gone through to see what paths I'm on and where I want to go.

I seek to help all beings collaboratively learn how to better program their bodies and meet all needs while denying none, through science, art, and love.

Since then, I've rebuilt my identity a few times over. I've also helped conceive and am nurturing a new person. Helping them explore the world everyday is so exciting and challenges the status quo of parenting in the area we live so hard, some people literally get angry watching us, will take clandestine photos, and call the police.

I've also come to enjoy the process of exploring and healing from traumas I've experienced.

There's a finite list of human needs for surviving and thriving. Learning about those gave me something to reflect on and pinpoint needs I wanted to focus on helping others meet.

Also, finding ways to integrate what I've learned from different fields into what I'm doing may have helped me keep from feeling boxed in.

Was doing web & mobile dev. Went back to school for an MS and was able to score a more research oriented role after getting lucky getting an internship and then busting my butt to prove myself.

I'm not obsessed about "working for my passion" or anything like that. I have a good life outside of work, supported by my high paying programmer job.

I did a lot of job-hopping the past few years looking for the right place to work, and I finally found it. I look for companies that respect work-life balance, don't want me to work too hard, and have excellent engineering culture that values high quality work and has managed to retain their senior employees. I deliver great work, they make money off of the code I ship, everybody is happy. I can crunch every once in a while but we all understand that it sucks and isn't a long-term strategy.

My father was a funeral director & coroner. He would NEVER claim he "loves what he does", but he used his career to build a life for him and his family. I look at my career the same way.

What do I ACTUALLY want to do? Develop video games, make music, write fiction. But nobody is shelling out for that, and even if they are, I'm not good enough at it to compete. I know if I pursued any of my passions, I would have to work much harder for much less pay, and be treated much more poorly by my employer. I know my limits and I know that I cannot thrive in a situation like that, I've done it before, no thanks.

Part of growing older is mourning the person you could have been. If I had a time machine, I would have stayed in better shape, practiced guitar more, invested my time more wisely. But I can't, and honestly my life has turned out pretty great by trusting my instincts.

After some burnout after building a tech company, I saved up money and left my job, and decided to take 2 years just doing whatever I feel like doing each day, until I find something I really, truly love, that I can build a new career from. I tried some different things, and in the end I found my new calling. I think the key is to free up time so you can experiment with different things with no pressure to make money immediately. In this video my whole story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfHvh87gm7M

So far, it's when they're outside naked or in a diaper in the cold or if we're playing near an intersection.