John C. Parkin - F**k It--Do What You Love

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Text John C. Parkin, 2016

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use, other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.

The information given in this book should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical advice; always consult a medical practitioner. Any use of information in this book is at the readers discretion and risk. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any loss, claim or damage arising out of the use, or misuse, of the suggestions made, the failure to take medical advice or for any material on third party websites.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-78180-246-5 in print
ISBN 978-1-78180-673-9 in ePub format

Interior images: pp.1113, 209 John Parkin; p.52 Gaia Pollini;
pp.27273 Vernon Wiley/istockphoto; 27475 Christian
Wheatley/istockphoto; 27677 Webeye/istockphoto

Dont cut the person to fit the cloth.

SUFI SAYING

For the first time in the human experience, we have a chance to shape our work to suit the way we live instead of our lives to fit our work We would be mad to miss the chance.

CHARLES HANDY IRISH AUTHOR AND PHILOSOPHER

As I was writing this book, whenever I mentioned to people that I was creating a F**k It take on Do What You Love, Id get one of two responses:

1. Wow, great, I need that! Whens it coming out? (Answer: now.)
2. Yes, but (and they would then reveal their perceived block on doing what they love).

So I started collecting all the number twos and made sure I addressed them in the book. Here they are, with where to find my response to them:

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 5. Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 3. Find What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 2. Why Do What You Love?)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 2. Why Do What You Love?)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What you Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

(in 4. Do What You Love)

(in 6. Making A Living By Doing What You Love)

Why the fried egg on the cover, Parkin?

I spent two years pondering the cover design for this book (on and off, clearly: I didnt work full-time on it for two years). And then I pictured this fried egg and it just worked: I didnt quite know why. Sure, the egg could represent certain things that people might love like cooking, or eating the food they grew up on, or leaving their job and becoming a chef.

The egg is a miraculous thing: a whole and wholesome food that arrives in its own packet. And its also the most versatile ingredient in the kitchen. I was doing something I really love yesterday wandering around Waterstones bookshop in Londons Piccadilly when I saw a book by Michael Ruhlman called Egg. It sits by my desk now.

In it, Ruhlman writes: The egg is the Rosetta Stone [an ancient Egyptian tablet that helped us decipher a little-known language] of the kitchen. Learn the language of the egg understand completely this amazing and beautiful oblong orb and you enter new realms of cooking, rocketing you to stellar heights of culinary achievement.

It seems to me that, like the egg (and the Rosetta Stone), doing what you love unlocks the secret language of life itself. When you learn how to find your flow and then to trust it, and follow it everything starts to work. Real magic starts to happen when youre doing what you love. It changes your brain waves (to the more relaxed alpha ones), and as a result, youre happier, youre healthier, and you seem to recruit invisible forces that make everything work more smoothly.

If youre open enough, following the flow of doing what you love can take you anywhere. Its the most versatile of life-compass tools just as the egg is the most versatile of ingredients. Doing what you love doesnt mean acting in a particular way, or following a set of rules, or leaving a job, or staying in a job, or persisting with something, or giving something up it just means doing what you love. Whatever that is, in the moment.

By learning to Do What You Love in this book, youll have your own recipe for a deliciously led life.

Ive looked back through my life and recorded the moments when I was doing what I loved (and also when I wasnt). Its actually been very enlightening to do this: a little bit like seeing your life flash before you, but with this filter on: Did I do what I loved?

You can write your own Doing What You Love (or not) autobiography. Get an idea of the times in your life when youve done just what the hell youve wanted to. And when you havent. The times when youve said F**k It and done it. And when you havent.

As you think about your whole life in this context, there will be some very obvious milestones that pop out. You dont have to go through your life and your decisions year by year just get a sense of when these milestones were.

Heres my Doing What You Love (or not) autobiography so you can see how I did it.

1971. I was a young boy, and early one evening I was dropping stones into a drain on the street where my family lived. As I dropped each stone, Id watch it hit the water a few feet below, and then Id imitate the sound it made by saying, plop.

Suddenly, one of our neighbours a rather severe senior policeman appeared behind me. He simply pointed at me, and then walked away. I still wake in the middle of the night sometimes, wondering what it was Id done wrong. I was doing something I enjoyed, and it was judged (I think). Not a great start to a life of doing what you love.

Lesson: people might judge you for doing what you love.

1983. Id cycle to school every day with my friend Gareth. It was a good distance and at one point in our journey, we had to go down a path that forked into two paths one of which went towards school (Long Eaton) and the other towards town (Nottingham). Each day, wed take the fork towards school. But then one day we stopped, nodded at each other, and took the fork towards Nottingham instead.