Crossroads of Skill and Time

I am coming to find myself at a crossroads.

I keep looking for the ability to succeed in areas that I know and am comfortable; what I am finding is those areas (for the most part) are simply crowding me out.

The Ravishing Mrs. TB said it best to a friend:  "It's not as if he doesn't have things he likes to do; it's just that he can't get paid for them."  True enough, I suppose - and it tracks with my thinking that more and more, success is truly achieved when you are doing what you want to be doing - and doing it well.

Can people succeed at doing what they don't like doing?  Of course they can - people do it every day.  But what I suspect - at least what is true in my own life - is that succeeding in something you don't really care for is like binding a heavy stone to your back and walking up a steep mountain.  You can make it of course, but you will be excessively exhausted when you do and probably not have enjoyed the journey.

Effort equals skill and skill leads to success.  But effort takes time and time to succeed - time to practice, time to learn - and it only comes freely when we find something we are willing to spend the time in.  When we find something that we enjoy.

I write "looking to succeed in areas I know that I am comfortable" because in the last few weeks it has become apparent that in some of those areas, I am simply not going to move forward.  I can expend additional effort in them but the chance that it will result in increased reward is slim to none.

And thus, I find myself at the crossroads.

I have (in the back of my head) occasional visions of what I could and would if I were succeeding in what I truly enjoyed.  They are sometimes wild to be sure and off the beaten path (although, I suppose, not off the path for anyone who knows me), but they are the sorts of things that putting effort into is no difficulty at all but rather a joy.  The sort of things that one springs out of bed to accomplish in the morning instead of dragging one's self out with a shudder.

The crossroads is coming.  How do I turn?