It’s a tale as old as time—people have often found themselves in jobs they hated. We’ve all found ourselves at the proverbial party , taking note of yet one more anecdote of a life-sapping job, and (hopefully) been ready to say “Sure glad that’s not my situation!” The counsel most offered lately is that you simply should, at a minimum, like whatever you are doing , and better yet, find employment you’re truly hooked in to . In almost no cases will someone say that you simply got to just persist with it when it’s not going well.

I’ve come to believe that this dichotomy between employment and a passion may be a false one. Look, we call it work for a reason. It’s hard. it isn’t play, and it’s undoubtedly not all pleasure. While there are often times when it’s really fun, a number of it’s about facing problems and solving them. However, the fulfillment, the joy, usually comes from working together on a team to tackle problems and maximize opportunities. (Of course, this is often less true if you hate people, but that discussion is for an additional day…with a trained professional).

While everything you are doing at work should not be a struggle, it is also not only about breakfast tacos, free beer, or other work perks, either. Sometimes, to accomplish what we’re beginning to try to to is tough work, and that is ok.

Sitting back in his dormitory doing the initial work that might eventually become the social media giant Facebook, i might imagine Mark Zuckerberg was having fun. Fast forward to today, and now he has every government within the Free World breathing down his neck and a military of unhappy people that use his platform to yell at one another . Yes, he can check out the “silver lining”—he’s a reasonably wealthy guy! —but at now , it’s clear that whatever his initial enthusiasm may are , running Facebook has become, at the top of the day, hard work.

For me, this is often where the rubber meets the road. I see way too many of us expecting to seek out something that provides them great joy and keenness all day, every day. If they fail to experience that level of ecstasy on a given day, they quit and check out to seek out a replacement job/passion which will fulfill them. I promise you that if this is often your expectation—a job that gives nothing but joy and feeds your passion every hour of the day, this may be a never-ending quest. That old adage that if you discover the work you’re keen on , you’ll never “work” each day in your life just isn’t true. If you discover yourself doing exactly what you’re best suited to try to to , you’ll still have days that sort of suck. That’s just real world .

Accepting that life and work, while fulfilling, can sometimes be difficult, may be a fact we all face sooner or later. And, pursuing your passion, while working through “hard” things at your job, means experiencing life fully—the good and therefore the bad. Work won’t be fun all the time—but it can (and should!) be tons of fun—if you’re employed with great people on interesting problems—which seems like something I could get hooked in to .