LOVE WHAT YOU DO, AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE

More and more of us are not content with simply working to live. We want – and deserve – to lead a more fulfilling life.

Anna Bartter explores how finding your passion can transform the dreariest of days

It was a drizzly, November Sunday morning. I was twenty-five, curled up on the sofa in my pyjamas, watching TV. Hands around a mug of tea, warm and cosy. My phone rang. It was the office. ‘Can you come in?’

My heart sank. My eyes welled with tears. It might sound insignificant but, almost twenty years on, I still get a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach, remembering this moment.

I couldn’t carry on. My spirit was fading, my self-esteem diminishing, toiling day after day in a job I hated.

Life rarely provides happily-ever-afters, and it’s taken time to get to a place where I feel happy and fulfilled in my work. The romantic notion of quitting a job you hate and following your dreams is not for everyone. But I’ve learned firsthand the importance of finding, or rediscovering – as we often know it already, if