Course not, I can hear the cynics say, it's just work, a job, why do I need to love it? Fun and enjoyment is for outside of work.
That's exactly what I used to tell myself. As long as I stomached the politics, the red tape and the pressure of my job, I'd be able to max out on the weekend. Yet I could never enjoy the down time, my stomach burnt with nerves and my sleep was interupted by my blinking blackberry.
I had a sexy title and a good salary, and everyone ooh'd and aah'd when I said I worked in film marketing. It was as if I was searching for their approval instead of my own.
The truth was I didn't want to market stories, movies, I wanted to write them. Not surprisingly in the end it didn't work out and I was back at square one.
It took me a year of soul searching to realise for the last fifteen years I'd done what I thought I was supposed to, what society wanted of me, my family, friends. The last time I'd revelled in what I'd done was at uni - reading novels and analysing them, and before that it was time as a little girl writing fairy stories.
So I began blogging, developing my style before embarking on my first book. The path of creativity hasn't been easy, but I've never had one day when I got to the end of it and said thank goodness it's over. I write for teens, about heroines in history and about the cosmos. I travel through words.
And whilst I haven't as yet been published, I have never felt more content, because real confidence comes from following your true passion. Image, money, security are no subsitutes for using your talent every day.
You may not think you have one, that it's best to work to live not to live to work. But given that we spend all our time 'working', isn't it better we do what we love? That our eight hours a day are more cheery than dreary?
What if you've worked in your job for years. Isn't it too late to change? I was 35 when I switched a career. I have other friends in their 40s, 50s, 60s who have retrained as a therapist, opened a bakery, or become a landscape gardener. Passions come in all shapes and sizes, as long as it's what you love, then just do it.
That's all good and well, but how will I pay the bills, feed the kids, etc? Not everyone can start a new business from scratch. But there are ways of working around it. Going part time, using evening time to kick off a new project. Maybe your partner would be ok to carry the financial load for a while till you've got your new career off the ground.
Also, according to many thinkers like Deepak Chopra, if it's truly what you're meant to do, then surely you'll be supported and abundance will flow. He also claims when people stagnate in their lives, there can be negative consequences whether mental illness or actual sickness.
It took me a while for the penny to drop. I had to be booted out of a job, travel for a year and even move country before I realised I was meant to write. In fact it was emigrating to France that got me started on the Huffpo. I recounted my funny franglais experiences as a brit girl in Paris.
After you've made the first step, which is always the hardest, everything starts to click into place. A cake stall in a market can turn into a London wide delivery service. Voluntary work at a youth club can turn into a new teaching career.
If you're still in doubt maybe you're doing the very thing you love, and that's great. But if you have a niggly doubt, that you're getting through the week rather than really enjoying it, then maybe it's time for a change. There are advisors, courses and books that can help you.
May be the best way is to ask yourself two questions. What do you think you're good at? And what do you dream of doing? Usually the two coincide, and will lead you to your vocation, and in the original spirit of the word, if you don't call yourself to your life purpose, somehow it will find a way of calling you.