I was recently wrapping up work on a new on-demand webinar, “Strengthen Your Library’s Brand,” and I thought to myself, “Well, that was a labor of love!” It got me thinking about that phrase. What is a labor love?
The definition is “a task done for pleasure, not reward.” Technically, my webinar was not a labor of love, because I charge for webinars. So why did it feel that way?
Maybe it’s because I spend so much time on my webinars. Every topic I cover is something I feel passionately about, and libraries have been my life and career for over two decades. I speak about the challenges of marketing libraries because I’ve lived it. And I suppose, at some point, I could have moved to a different industry. But thank goodness I didn’t! I love this work, and maybe that’s why it feels like a labor of love.
Moving a child into college, as I did a couple of weeks ago, also feels like a labor of love. What is your labor of love? Is it a special work project, a hobby, or volunteer work? Is it putting a note in someone’s lunch box, or smiling at a neighbor? Is it giving your pet that extra scratch behind the ears? Let me know!
Cordelia Anderson Consulting 