Getting Paid for Having Fun

Yesterday, I went to pick up my business mail which generally consists of a bunch of work-related correspondence that involves my attention–and not generally in a good way. So imagine my surprise at getting a package from Subterranean Press and finding a special signed edition of John Scalzi’s a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596061030?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=1596061030″emThe Sagan Diary/em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=1596061030″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / with a whopping $25.00 honorarium inside–my reward for a href=”http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004836.html”reading one of the chapters /aof the book on audio tape. Now, I know you are saying to yourself, “WTF is this woman chattering about here–you’d think she won the lottery or something,” but in my mind, I did. I am always amazed everytime I get paid even the smallest amount for doing something that I enjoy–writing articles, reading an audio book, blogads payments for blogging etc. Have you ever noticed that getting paid even a little for something you like is worth more than getting a whopping check for doing something you don’t or even just doing something you feel neutral about that feels like work? I imagine the key to fullfilling work is to turn doing those things we love from a hobby into a job–but then, maybe that would feel too much like work.