People say this because we are enjoined to "do what we love", find our passion. Well, what's so wrong with just doing something you like? Nothing (IMO), but it doesn't sound good. "Complacent" and "content" are dirty words.
The flipside of working in a field about which you are passionate typically goes unremarked upon - sometimes the realities of the job can destroy your love/passion for the thing itself. It's very sad.
My grandfather worked on machines in a factory his whole career, accumulating so much knowledge about the machines that he could know what was wrong with a machine just by listening to it. Then after he retired, companies kept hiring him as a consultant, flying him out to solve their problems. Of this he told my father, "All those years working with my hands, I should have been working with my head." I get to do that, and I have my whole career. I try not to lose sight of the value of that.
The flipside of working in a field about which you are passionate typically goes unremarked upon - sometimes the realities of the job can destroy your love/passion for the thing itself. It's very sad.
My grandfather worked on machines in a factory his whole career, accumulating so much knowledge about the machines that he could know what was wrong with a machine just by listening to it. Then after he retired, companies kept hiring him as a consultant, flying him out to solve their problems. Of this he told my father, "All those years working with my hands, I should have been working with my head." I get to do that, and I have my whole career. I try not to lose sight of the value of that.