We talked a bit about this in Boston. I've worked numerous jobs that I don't love (or even like) and I never had a problem with it. However, with more creative things, I found it much harder to separate myself from my work. When you work your ass off to solve problems and come up with creative solutions and design and redesign and code and re-code and fix bugs and start from scratch, it's hard to separate yourself. Throughout the process, my mind is consistently working in the background trying to figure out how to solve the problem - whether it's coming up with the initial idea or a particularly stubborn bug. With creation, it's rare that you can force a solution. It's best to think on it without consciously thinking about it. I've come up with so many solutions, or half solutions, or new approaches, or whatever at a bar or in the shower.
Yeah, well . . . this why lots of teachers drink. I'm not saying that it's easy to leave work behind, especially when one cares about what one does. What I am saying is that leaving work in the workplace is something that has taken me a long time to learn and I'm still learning that sometimes I need to let things, places and sometimes even people behind because my emotional attachment gets in the way of being happy or moving toward something else. My example was more like . . . "sometimes coloring outside the lines can help to understand how better to color within them" . . . or something. Other friends assure me that once in my 30s, I'll have enough life experience to better know who I am and what I want. We'll see. Hope it's not too much tribulation for you to figure out what's next!