What work makes your heart sing?

There's a book I like that talks of how each of us has something that is our Zone of Genius, that makes us supremely happy and satisfied to do it, that makes our hearts sing! Mine is designing things to meet a specific need, I can implement well too, but the design phase is when I fly. If I could do only one thing for the rest of my life, it would be design. It gives me deep satisfaction, and makes me feel my life is well worth living.
What I don't manage to do at this point is get paid for that, to make a living at it. The ideal is to make your living doing that which makes your heart sing.

What work do you do that makes your heart sing, and is it how you make your living?

I just like seeing things grow, plants and animals both.  I know a fair bit about NPK, humus, protein, carbs, and minerals, but it is still a miracle when it all comes together. Facilitating the cycle of nutrients really appeals to me (got a batch of fish/biochar compost going right now).  I don’t make any income from it to speak of other than what I feed our family.  I’ve sold some before and the customer service aspect took some of the fun out of it, but if I had to make money, I’d probably focus on plant propagation.

It's teaching that makes my heart sing. I have passionately wanted to be a teacher since I was seven years old.

Teaching doesn't make a lot of money, especially not the way I do it--online with no advertising--and I have no teaching licensure. But not only does my heart sing because of the nature of the work, but because of the freedom I have to choose my topic(s) and to teach my own way!

Problem solving! Seeing a need or issue and thinking up a bunch of different ways to try and fix or solve the problem. Hubby often whines that my solutions are impractical, but I think he's finally got it, that I'm not wedded to a specific idea - just to the concept or the path that then leads to more realistic solutions.

#1- Veterinary medicine makes my heart sing. I could do it for 200 years and never tire of it. I’m now retired from vet med, but I haven’t left it behind. I volunteer at our local spay/neuter clinics.

#2- Growing food is almost as good as vet med. it’s my main passion now. I love growing all sorts of food and donate most of it to my community food project. I’ve partnered with our local non-profit group where we grow food, selling what we need to cover our material costs, and give the rest to create free meals.  

Having passions like this makes life satisfying even when it’s difficult at times.

Planting trees and restoring watersheds. Beaver's work is dam satisfying.

When I was a child I was lucky enough to be pretty good at academia. I loved learning things. But it was hard to choose a career because I wasn't called in a particular way. My love for learning and satisfaction (like Jay) with problem solving kept me pretty happy in engineering for 20 years.

I now have a two part life; both sides satisfy different needs:
The rural convenience store I own satisfies the 'helping people' need and also the need to know what's going on. I know who's expecting a baby, who's thinking of moving away, who's daughter in Australia has Covid (what's said in the shop stays in the shop though). 'Shoulder to cry on' is one of my unofficial job titles, sometimes people just need to vent, and it's funny sometimes to hear both sides of the same incident. I love that feeling of community or family that gives. But I also like the satisfaction of being able to produce just what people need at a moments notice. People tend to come to us for unplanned needs, so it's extra good to be able to provide that phone charger or toilet paper for them.

The other part of my life is growing things, and putting my own roots down into my little plot of land. I feel that I am creating something here too.

Guess which side of the fence is mine!

I wouldn't say I've got a green thumb, but it's satisfying when something works out the way you thought, and also satisfying to learn why it didn't - if that makes sense? I don't make a living from the land, although I am selling some berries and other produce I've grown through the shop. My ambition is to have more time to spend on the land, and be able to create more value from it over the next few years.

So I don't think it's just one thing that creates that joy in work.

Teaching does it for me, too. I fought that desire for years because of insecurity. My mom encouraged me to get a teaching license in college, and I refused because I didn't feel good enough to teach a classroom of students. I didn't just want to be a teacher -- I wanted to be a GREAT teacher, and I didn't feel like I had a good role model of what that was.

I've learned so much about teaching since then and hope to make an income from it in the near future. In the meantime, I tutored a couple of low-income homeschoolers for free to satisfy my drive to teach.

I love to learn and to write. Have known it since I was a child. Mistakenly thought that meant I had to be an academic, or write the great American novel-- later found out that I can make money from writing in a variety of palatable ways (while saving fiction writing to be a hobby, not an obligation), and I can learn every day of my life. Someone recently said to me: "your job is to do homework all day!" To a certain extent, yes, that is exactly what I do- reading, learning, research, writing. I just pass it through a few languages during the middle step, and I also get paid for it.

I also like creating things from very little, and solving complicated problems. Fiber crafting (untangling balls of yarn!) and urban gardening both hit those goals perfectly.

Raising baby animals.    Rabbits, sheep, ducklings, piglets..  oh my.   The abundance of little ones around in the spring makes my heart sing, and makes any work related to their care or in their proximity a joy.   Seeing baby plants waking up is a close second.

So many things I love and enjoy but two things really make my heart sing:
#1 When I see a child's face light up with the joy of discovering or learning or creating. (teaching and parenting)
#2 When I see a new plant pushing up through the soil, even if it's a weed. It gives me a thrill! (gardening)
Maybe those things are related?

It seems like customer service from the service side is very draining for a lot of people. I am the other way around.   Social situations are very stressful for me.  I don't do group activities, except when working. I love helping customers. It gives me a safe and clearly defined social guideline and I don't have to worry that I seem strange or nosey or like I am building leverage to manipulate them.  I love being able to help people and watching their frustration drop.  Every time I help find something, pull down something out of reach, or find some other way to make someone's day run smooth feels like an little hit of joy. I think most unhappiness starts with the tiny irritating problems like sand in an oyster shell and so I metaphorically make pearls.

With the rare (and for me it is very, very rare) problem customer I don't internalize their problems. I can stand firm against a disrespectful or angry customer without becoming angry about it. Because this is work and not a social situation the problems I am responsible for and the problems I am allowed to help with are clearly defined. Going beyond that can be a joy but I don't feel guilt for not catering to bullying.  Holding the line reduces the burden on the next person who has to tell them no.

Teaching and playing with bees. Best yet is teaching people how to play with bees :D