Desire Work Under Capitalism: A Practical Operation
I've been kicking around the idea for a book for a while—a practical guide to enchantment for employment. I’m of both the generation and gifted-categorization that grew up hearing that you could be whatever you wanted if you just believed in yourself and tried hard.
Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case at this point in the timeline. Belief and hard work help, but some doors may be hard to open, or not open at all. The trick, I’ve found, is finding the right doors to unlock desire. Not how to get there, but what it is we find when we arrive.
With this in mind, I am going to share a practical operation that barely qualifies as enchantment. In my work persona, I have done a lot of visioning and strategy work for large organizations. This is that, but for a human life.
Acquire one or two giant sticky notepads if you can, or if you want to keep it thrifty, a couple of large sheets of posterboard. You will also need markers.
At the top of one sheet, write “Stuff I’m Good At”
At the top of another sheet, write “Stuff I Like Doing”
Desire work is hard, so this may be hard. You may feel like there’s nothing you’re good at. If you, like me, struggle with anhedonia, you may feel like there’s nothing you really enjoy doing. This is an operation of abundance and expansion, so you will need to find hope and openness for this practice. You may require an altered state of consciousness, whether than comes from a plant ally, or frenetic dance to music you love, or deep meditation. The last time I did this operation, I was still in physical relationship to cannabis, and she helped me. Find what works for you to get into a state of flow and joy.
And then—go off. No limits; don’t worry about whether something can be monetized or not—this is about entering the beautiful world of abundance and possibility.
The last time I undertook this operation back in 2020, the lists looked something like this (though this is only a fraction of what I included):
GOOD AT: cooking, writing, knowing facts, sex, building communities, synthesizing information, reading, flirting, flexibility, empathy, vulnerability, design, magic, food, anthropology, communication, making people laugh
LIKE DOING: petting dogs, cooking, acquiring/sharing new facts, sex, being in community, being outside, laughing and making people laugh, talking to people, body stuff, reading, body stuff, spirit stuff, spooky and weird stuff
From there, you find the overlaps:
cooking, fact acquisition/sharing, community work, interacting with people, magic and spirit, making people laugh, sex and body stuff
Not all of these things will fit into the vision that you enchant for—I love cooking as a form of relaxation too much to want to do it for pay, and my years of monetizing my sexuality are behind me. I would actually argue it’s important not to try to monetize everything you love, so that you can maintain some delights in your off-hours that don’t tie back to the bottom line.
But when I first did this operation, it became clear to be that in my pursuit of higher level and more prestigious roles in my chosen field (community management), I had moved beyond the parts of it that I liked and was good at: learning, working with people, building basic relationships. I took my passion and drowned it in strategy meetings.
I don’t know what you’ll find in your own case—maybe it’s just video games and masturbation, which are a little trickier—but for me, it made me realize that I needed to leave my lead strategist role and go back to being the community manager for a small organization that did work I believed in, as part of a team that was close-knit and fun. It took some time to find that role, and I did some additional enchantments to get it*, but it helped me find something great and rewarding where I’ve learned a lot and had an excellent time.
There’s nothing to lose, and a lot to learn about yourself, and who knows…you might just find a sick day job.
*I will never underestimate the power of scheduling calls for Jupiter hour