What makes you come alive?

One of my favourite quotes, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs- ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. by Harold Thurman Whitman. 

What a thought, doing what really makes you come alive, day in and day out. Not having to fill other time with work, that feels like work. On a recent walk Alex and I were talking about work hours, and how someone we know works something like 12 or 13 hour days, consistently. To us, the thought is insane, though I know many other do it, my father included. But then it hit me, I would actually love to do this, I would love for "work" to be the things I love, and loved so much that it didn't feel like work. The person we had been talking about, unfortunately this is not the case, it is some stressful, highly demanding job, though that is not what we are talking about here. We often talk that we work to live, we don't live to work, life was not made for work... as they say I doubt someday you will look back at your life and think... I should have worked more. 

Far to often in life we don't ask ourselves what makes us come alive when considering which paths to take, we far too often ask questions like what makes the most money, what will advance my career the most (but to what!?!?), what would my friends and family be proud of me for doing? Do ANY of these questions really matter, only to some very small degree, don't get me wrong, I have expensive taste, and like a nice lifestyle, but I think if you are really doing something that drives you and makes you come alive, lights a fire and drive in you then it goes a long way. I guess that I am also fortunate that I think/ hope that the things that do this for me would bring in some form or another of income. 

So, I shall continue to push toward the goals of something, one of the many things that really makes up part of me, part of my inner fire.