There’s a saying: “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” You may also never be able to pay your rent or mortgage, eat, or get your kids new clothes. If everyone did only what they loved, we’d all be starving artists—literally starving. At least the knitters among us could make sweaters before withering away.

For the majority of us, it’s less “Do what you love” and more “Do what you must.” I can say this as someone who was a flea market carpet salesperson, a telemarketer, and a receptionist during the day and bartender at a seafood joint at night. I think you can guess I wasn’t doing what I loved in any of these cases. But I had something that got me through the worst days of these “must” jobs: Bhakti, Santosha, and Svadharma.

These aren’t the names of fancy red wines, though I also had plenty of that while working these jobs, along with stress-eating, spending, and other “I deserve this, dammit!” behavior.  But I began to see that the self-soothing I was doing wasn’t making me feel any better. My spending and avoidance was keeping me in exactly the prison that caused the need for the self-soothing in the first place.

Yoga helped me see a better way. I’m not just talking about the physical practice, though exercise was definitely a better coping mechanism than stuffing my feelings. Yoga had spiritual tools that helped me adjust my perspective, define goals, and build paths to achieve them. The tools I relied on most:

1. Bhakti: devotion. Devotion is defined as love and loyalty—in the usual Yoga sense, devotion to a higher power, but it can also be love for family and friends, and loyalty to your principles. I was definitely not devoted to the bartending job, where I got tipped in quarters by customers killing time before their lobster dinners. But I was very devoted to my parents; I didn’t want to burden them with requests for rent money. Focusing on how I was paying my own way helped me show up and just do the work without too much kvetching. Another example: One of my office friends didn’t love working late into the night, but she did love her daughter beyond words. The job allowed her to provide a good home for her child. You probably work to support someone or something you love, like your family, your home, vacations to a favorite place, your pack of rescue mutts. Focus on what you’re devoted to and your work becomes more bearable. If you hate the job, find the love.  
2. Santosha: contentment. I love the story of The Minimalists. Joshua and Ryan were living the dream—working hard to buy big houses and fill them with stuff. Then they realized that all this stuff wasn’t making them happy. They downsized dramatically, getting rid of the things, moving into smaller places. And they’re much happier than before. (You can watch their story in Minimalism: A Documentary on Netflix.) There are lots of blogs about capsule wardrobes, books about living with less, and shows like Tiny House Nation. And they’re not just about de-cluttering. What these stories all have in common is Santosha; the people found out that contentment didn’t come from the material contents of their homes. And by simplifying, they were able to focus on defining and realizing their goals. Speaking of which…
3. Svadharma, or your unique path. In Yoga, it’s believed that each of us has our own path and can make a unique contribution to the world. Unfortunately, we can get so distracted by the daily grind that we put off doing, or even planning, what we want to do and feel we would be good at until “someday.” Then, years later, you wake up with hair greyer than mine. You don’t want that (I mean the life-passed-me-by disappointment, not the hair).

If there’s something you want to do, start laying the groundwork to do it—now. Don’t wait for “someday”; that day is today. Start walking your unique path. Even if what you want to do has already been done, no one else can do it like you.    

RELATED: You Don’t Have to Do Yoga to Do Yoga

So yes, it turns out you can do what you love, in some form, to be determined by you. And you don’t have to quit your job or walk away from your life to do it (unless you want and can afford to). Whichever path you take, by using these spiritual tools of Yoga, you may never have to turn a day of your life into work.