I can do this all day

Overlooking the pastry kitchen of my favourite shop, I see a busy staff dancing through the various sections, making colourful macaroons, moving steaming paninis in and out of the oven, checking ingredients and temperatures.  I wonder, are they passionate about every piece of their craft, or has this become a production shop?
When they entered cooking school, they probably dreamed about their own shop, their own take on food and experience they want for their customers.  But at a big, successful shop like this, they are literally just churning products out non-stop.  Maybe it’s a rite of passage, the workout that will prepare them for the eventual test, or maybe it’s the grind that will crush their dreams.  Some may complain about the work that needs to get done in a tight timeline, others appreciate the opportunity to learn the craft of blending quality with volume.
A Kung Fu student has been practicing with his master a whole day but has not been able to touch a hair on the master, despite being a quarter the age with much bigger muscles.  Exhausted and defeated, he gave in and asked the master for tips.  The master responded: “I can do this all day, can you?”.
Across the table of a high stake negotiation, an impatient executive knows he is going to lose it and wanted to bully his way to progress. The detailed back and forth grinded him down to just wanting an outcome, any outcome.  “I don’t have all day, let’s just make a deal and wrap this up.”   The response on the other side of the table: “I can do this all day, every day. I do this for a living, my friend. Let’s go back to ……”
How does this work?
A foundational part is simply professionism and respecting what it takes to get the job done. The other part is the passion about something that you focus on the process, the progress and the results will follow your efforts over time. Others tend to only see the outcome and only you will know the journey.
There are things that we know ourselves, and maybe only ourselves, that we can “do all day”. This is not about sitting on a beach or a couch watching tv or playing video games for entertainment or escape.  It may be the little things that others don’t find the worth of attention but you find the satisfaction in solving.  A puzzle, learning how things work, how to make it better, why people behave the way they do, how to best water a plant, how to mine crypto…    It is not about following the money, but following yourself, where you spend your 5pm to 9am.
What can you do all day?
Be the Master, of your craft, for your destiny.